A Sad Goodbye

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, March 14, 2021.  The Bible verses used are John 13:21-39.

            Have you ever had to say goodbye to friends?  Maybe because they moved away, maybe because you did.  Wanda and I have moved a few times in our lives.  Part of that is just the life of a United Methodist pastor, but we also moved once other time, long before I became a pastor.

Each time we were convinced that the move would be good for us, and that turned out to be true.  Still, moving is hard.  When you live in a place for a while, you make friends.  You have people who are important to you.  And now, you’re not going to see those people for a while.

You promise each other that you’ll stay in touch, and sometimes you do.  It’s a little easier now, with things like facebook--I can keep up with people in Wessington Springs, and in North Sioux City, and from my days in seminary, much more easily than you could twenty or thirty years ago.  I can even keep up with people I knew in Pierre, and it’s thirty years since I lived there.

But still, it’s not the same, is it?  You don’t see these people on a casual, everyday basis.  You don’t get to have those little conversations that cement a relationship.  Saying goodbye may be easier than it used to be, but it’s still hard.  It probably always will be.

It was hard for Jesus, too.  In our Bible reading for tonight, Jesus is saying goodbye to his disciples.  It’s his last night on earth.  And he knows that.  And he knows why.  He has just washed the disciples’ feet, which we talked about last week.  Now, Jesus tells them that one of them is going to betray him.  It turns out to be Judas, of course, but none of the disciples seem to have realized that at the time.  Judas leaves, and it apparently is just Jesus and the other eleven disciples who are there.  

Jesus starts talking to them.  He tells them he’ll only be there a little while longer.  He’s leaving.  He does not say where he’s going, but he’s leaving.  And the disciples cannot go with him.  This is it.  This is goodbye.

He goes on to give them the new command to love one another.  And they obviously remembered that later.  But right now, that’s not their concern.  Their concern is that Jesus is leaving them.  And they cannot go with him to where he’s going.  And they don’t understand why.

Simon Peter asks Jesus where he’s going.  Jesus does not say.  He simply says that the disciples cannot go there, at least not now.  He says they will come later.  Simon Peter still does not understand.  He says, why can’t I come?  I will lay down my life for you.  And Jesus, of course, responds that Simon Peter will disown him three times before morning.

We know now, of course, that Jesus was right.  But I think Peter meant it when he said it.  He did not follow through on it, obviously, but he meant it at the time.  He was carried away with emotion.  The last thing he wanted was for Jesus to leave.  And if Jesus had to leave, he wanted to go with him.  He wanted to go anywhere Jesus went.

Simon Peter, and all the other disciples, were sad that Jesus was leaving. But you know who else I think was sad?  Jesus.  I think Jesus was probably just as sad at leaving the disciples as the disciples were that he was leaving them.

His words just seem completely steeped in sadness to me.  “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.”  A little later, he says again, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

Now, obviously, part of the reason Jesus was sad was because he knew what was ahead of him.  Arrest, beatings, torture, death.  No one would look forward to that.  But I think he was also sad just at the thought that he was leaving his closest friends.  Jesus had gotten close to these people.  They’d shared the most important experiences of his life on earth with him.  They’d been there through the miracles, through the healing, through driving out demons, through the preaching, through the arguments with the Pharisees, all of it.  And now, he had to leave them behind.  How could Jesus not be sad about that?

But of course, Jesus knew he had to do it.  Jesus knew he had to leave them.  It was his destiny.  It was what he had come to earth for in the first place.  He knew leaving them was the right thing to do.  And he knew it would not be forever, that he would see them again.  But still, this was a hard thing for him to do.  It’s always hard to leave friends behind.

Jesus goes on to tell the disciples a whole lot of things.  We’ve been talking about that in our Wednesday night services.  He tells them that he is the way, and that no one comes to the Father except through him.  He tells them that if they love him, they’ll keep his commands and do all the things he’s told them to do.  He tells them that his commandment is that they love each other, just as he has loved them.  He tells them the world may hate them for following him.  He tells them he’s going to send the Holy Spirit to them.

Jesus tells the disciples all this and more.  And they listen, and they remember.  But none of it really helps, not then.  All they can think about is that Jesus is going away.  He was saying goodbye to them, and they had to say goodbye to him.

It was one of the hardest things they had ever done.  It may have been one of the hardest things Jesus did, too.  But they did it.  They did it, because they knew it had to be done.  Again, Jesus knew it had to be done because it was why he had come.  The disciples did not necessarily understand why it had to be done, but Jesus said it had to be done, and they believed him.  And so, they all did it.  As hard as it was for them to do, they did it.

I talk sometimes about how we should feel joy at serving God.  And we should.  It’s a great honor to serve God.  It’s a privilege to serve God.  It’s incredible that we’re even allowed to serve God.  After all, we cannot do anything for God that God could not do for Himself.  God does not need our service.  God allows us to serve Him, out of love for us.  That thought alone should give us joy.

But even though I say that, and I believe it, the fact is that serving God sometimes requires us to do things we really don’t want to do.  Serving God sometimes requires us to do things that are hard.  And serving God sometimes requires us to do things that make us sad.

Why would God do that?  Why would God ask us to do things that we don’t want to do?  Things that make us sad?  Does God not want us to be happy?  Does God not want us to enjoy our lives?  Why would God want us to do things that make us sad?  Why would God ask us to serve Him in that way?

            Well, look at what happened to the disciples.  Did they stay sad forever?  No.  They were sad for a while, but then Jesus returned!  He rose from the grave on Easter, he appeared to them, he talked with them, he ate with them, he explained things to them.  And when he did eventually leave them again, they understood.  Maybe not everything, but they understood he was returning to heaven.  And they understood that they would go there someday, too, when their work on earth was done.  And they were not sad anymore.  They were filled with joy, knowing that their faith in Jesus had been and would be rewarded.

            And I have to think Jesus was happy, too.  Happy that he had stayed faithful to God the Father.  Happy that he was going to heaven to be reunited with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  Happy that things had gone and would go the way they were supposed to go.  He was not sad anymore, either.  I think Jesus was also filled with joy.

            Because that’s the thing about sadness--it does not have to last forever.  What we need to remember, in this and many other instances, is that God knows so much more than we do.  God has so many plans and purposes that we know nothing about.  What God asks us to do may make us sad right now.  But if we stay faithful, and do what God asks us to do, our sadness will not last forever.  At some point, it will be replaced by joy.  God will act, and things will go the way they’re supposed to go.  We may never fully understand, but we will understand enough.  And we will not be sad anymore.  At some point, we will understand enough that we will be filled with joy, too.

            Life has sadness sometimes.  Ecclesiastes Chapter Three tells us that there is a time to weep and a time to mourn.  But there are also times to laugh and times dance.  If you and I hang in there through the sad times, and continue to be faithful to God, God will turn our sadness into joy.

 

Not the Savior We're Looking For

This is the message given Sunday morning, March 14, 2021, in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Mark 12:35-44.

            Have you ever talked to someone on the phone, or maybe heard them on the radio or something, but never actually seen them?  You get kind of a mental picture of what you think they look like, right?  And then you actually see them, and--you get confused.  Because they don’t look anything like what you thought they’d look like.  Your mental picture of them turns out to be completely wrong.

            I bring this up because one of the things that confused the religious leaders of Jesus’ day is that they all had a mental picture of what the Messiah would be like.  Not just his looks, but his actions, his beliefs, everything.  The Messiah would be the Son of David.  The Messiah would come as a conqueror.  The Messiah would raise an army, defeat the Romans, and re-establish the Kingdom of Israel.  And, of course, the Messiah would make sure the Pharisees and the teachers of the law and all the other religious leaders had a prominent place in the kingdom once it was established.

            And then, here comes Jesus, and he’s nothing like what the Messiah was “supposed” to be like.  He had no interest in establishing an earthly kingdom.  He did not want to fight the enemies of Israel--in fact, he said people should love their enemies.  He did not try to raise an army--he preached a gospel of peace.  And he had no particular use for the Pharisees or the teachers of the law or any other religious leaders of his time.

            It was not only that, though.  Jesus simply did not see things the way the Messiah was “supposed” to see them.  Jesus turned all the established rules on their head.  And we have three examples of that today.

            We start out with the idea that the Messiah would be the Son of David.  Now, the genealogies of Jesus, as set forth in Matthew and in Luke, establish that Jesus was, in earthly terms, descended from King David.  But Jesus says, worrying about that misses the point.  David himself said so.  Jesus said, David calls the Messiah “Lord”.  David would not call his son “Lord”.  So, the Messiah must not be his son.

            We’re told that the crowd around Jesus listened with delight.  We’re not told how the Pharisees or other religious leaders reacted.  But it’s not hard to guess that they were not very pleased.  “Everybody knew” that the Messiah would be descended from David.  For Jesus to say that did not matter--well, that was outrageous.  It certainly was not something the Messiah would say.

            Then, Jesus says something even more outrageous.  He tells people to watch out for the teachers of the law, and not in a good way.  Jesus said the teachers of the law were arrogant.  They made a big show of how great they thought they were, and they expected everyone else to think they were great, too.  Jesus says, “These men will be punished most severely.”

            Again, we’re not told how the teachers of the law reacted, but I’m pretty sure they were not happy about it.  These were the people the Messiah was supposed to love and bring to prominence.  These were the people who were supposed to get the top spots in the new kingdom of Israel.  To say they would be severely punished--well, again, that’s just not something the Messiah would say.

            Then Jesus goes to the temple.  He watches people put their money into the treasury.  He sees some people put in big amounts.  Then, a poor widow comes by and puts in a few cents.  And Jesus says her contribution was more valuable than all the others, because she has put in everything she has to live on.

            And again, the religious authorities were outraged.  Does Jesus not know how much money it takes to run the temple?  Does Jesus not know how many salaries have to be paid, how much the supplies cost?  How can Jesus say this little bit that the poor widow put in is more valuable than the big donations?  I mean, yeah, we get that she put in as much as she could, but if everybody put that little in, we’d never make it.  We need the heavy hitters, the big contributors.

            Now, it’s not that Jesus did not understand economics.  And note, he does not criticize the wealthy people for the amounts they put in.  He does not say their contributions are unimportant or are not valued.  His point is that most of us, no matter our financial status, put in what we can afford.  This woman put in everything she had.  She did not worry about whether she could afford it.  She was completely sold out for God.  And that’s what the religious authorities could not understand.  It just did not sound like something the Messiah would say.

            Now, we look at this, from our perspective, and we wonder how the religious authorities could be so dense.  How could they not understand what Jesus was saying?  How could they not see how wrong they were?  What was wrong with those people?

            And yet, are those religious leaders really all that different from you and me?  How many times do we just kind of ignore what Jesus said, because it does not fit our mental image of what the Savior should be and what the Savior should say?  I mean, we might pay lip service to it.  We might say, yeah, that’s what we ought to do.  That’s how we should live.  But then, so many times, we don’t live it out.  We just keep living like we have been, because what Jesus told us to do does not fit what we want the Savior to say.

            And again, I do this, too.  I know I say that a lot, but I never want anyone to think that I’m standing here thinking I’m better than you.  I don’t want this to sound like I think I get this and you don’t.  There are many, many times, as a pastor, that you preach to yourself as much as you preach to anyone else, and this is definitely one of those times.  I struggle with this at least as much as anyone else.

            But think of some of the things Jesus said, and think of how little we tend to live those things out.  “Love your enemies”.  How many of us do that?  How many of us even try?  I mean, maybe we do it in theory, but what actions do we take to show that we love our enemies?

            “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also.”  How many of us have ever done that?  I mean, even once, much less as a regular practice?  It just does not fit the way we think a person should live their life.

            “Do to others as you would like others to do to you.”  Again, it sounds good in theory, but do we actually live it out?  Too often, we treat others as they actually treat us, not as we’d like them to treat us.  If people are nice to us, we’re nice to them.  If they don’t treat us well, we don’t treat them well, either.  Again, it just does not fit with how we think people should live.

            “Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.”  That one does not even make sense to us, does it?  Did Jesus not understand human nature?  If we give to everyone who asks, we won’t have anything left.  Why would Jesus even say such a thing?

            “Whoever believes in the Son is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already.”  But God loves everyone, right?  Why would God condemn people for not believing in Jesus?  I mean, sure, maybe murderers and people like that, but why would God condemn good people, people who love others and do things for others, just because they don’t believe in Jesus?  That cannot be right.

            We could go on and on.  The point is that we tend to try to make Jesus fit our image of what the Savior should be, just like the Pharisees and the other religious authorities tried to make Jesus fit their image of what the Savior should be.  And when Jesus’ words do not fit our image, we tend to ignore them, or try to explain them away, or try to come up with some reason why Jesus did not actually mean what he said.  We don’t want to adjust our image to the reality of Jesus.  Instead, we want to adjust the reality of Jesus to fit our image.

            We are in the season of Lent.  One of the purposes of Lent is for us to take an honest look at ourselves.  We try to see who we are, and we see how far short we fall from who God wants us to be.  And we don’t just acknowledge that.  We then ask for God’s forgiveness, and we try to change.  We ask for God to help us be the people God wants us to be, rather than the people we actually are or even the people we want to be.

            As we do that, let’s take an honest look at the words of Jesus.  Let’s not ignore what he said.  Let’s not explain it away.  Let’s not come up with reasons why Jesus was not serious about it.  Let’s really look at Jesus’ words.  Let’s take them to heart.  And then, let’s ask for God’s help in living them out.  Let’s not worship the Savior who fits our image.  Let’s worship the real Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus or the World

This is the message given at the Wednesday night Lent service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are John 15:18-27.

            Most of us want to be liked.  It’s a natural human thing.  I’m not saying it’s the most important thing in everyone’s life, necessarily.  But we all want to have friends.  We all want people to think well of us.  It’s just part of being human.

            And it’s not that that’s wrong or anything.  I’ve said many times that God put us into communities, into churches, into other groups because God knows that life is too hard for us to go through by ourselves.  We need other people to be there for us, and we need to be there for other people, too.  After all, even Jesus had his inner circle, his close friends, the twelve disciples.  Even Jesus did not try to go through life on earth alone.

            But while it’s natural to want to be liked, and it’s natural to want to have friends, even that can be carried too far.  Jesus had his close friends, but he also had a lot of enemies.  That’s why he was killed, after all--Jesus had powerful enemies, people who were scared of what he was doing, people who thought he had to be stopped at all costs.  Those enemies thought the way to stop his was to kill him, and they did.

            We know now, of course, that not even death could stop Jesus.  But the point is that Jesus was not universally loved, or even liked.  He had people who hated him.  They did not hate him for any specific thing he had said or done.  I mean, if they’d been asked, they’d probably have tried to point to certain things, but those things were not the reason they hated him.  In fact, according to Matthew, Chapter Twenty-six, his enemies had no real evidence to present against him at his trial, and so they just made up some lies to tell against him.  Jesus’ enemies did not hate him for anything specific that he had said or done.  They hated him because of who he was.  They hated him because he was the divine Son of God.  And they hated him because he was not afraid to say so, and he was not afraid to speak on behalf of God the Father.

            Jesus could have compromised on that, you know.  Jesus could have tried to appease his enemies.  He could’ve said, well, you know, I’ll stop claiming to be the Son of God.  I’ll still heal people and I’ll still talk about love, but I’ll just shut up about judgment and about repentance and all that other stuff.  Then my enemies will stop hating me and leave me alone.

            Jesus could’ve said that.  But if he had, he would not have been true to who he was.  He would not have been the Savior, the Messiah.  He would’ve still been a good guy.  He would’ve still done some good things.  And he would’ve probably had a lot more people like him.  But he would not have been able to give us salvation and eternal life.  And he would not have done what God the Father had sent him to earth to do.  The only way for Jesus to do those things was for him to be who he truly was.  And that meant that he was going to have enemies, powerful enemies.

            Our Bible reading takes place on the last night of Jesus’ life on earth.  Jesus knows what’s going to happen.  He knows he’s going to be arrested and ultimately killed.  And the disciples know it, too.  At least, they know Jesus is going away.  And so, Jesus is trying to get the disciples prepared to carry on without him.

            Jesus knows that, when he leaves, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on the disciples.  See, while Jesus was with them, Jesus took the brunt of the criticism.  Jesus was the focus of all the hatred.  But when Jesus leaves, that hatred is going to be focused on the disciples.  

            And Jesus knows that it’s going to be a real temptation for the disciples to compromise.  Again, we all want to be liked.  No one wants to have enemies, especially powerful enemies.  And so Jesus tries to warn the disciples about what’s going to happen.  He wants them to be ready, so they can resist the temptation to compromise, to go along and get along.  He wants them to be able to stand firm in their faith, so they can continue his work of spreading the gospel.

            So, Jesus tells them right out.  Look, if you stay true to me, the world is going to hate you.  It’s going to hate you every bit as much as it hated me.  Because if you follow me, you’re going to be doing things differently from the way the world does them.  You’re going to say things that are different from what the world says.  You’re going to live your life differently from the way the rest of the world lives their lives.  And people are going to hate you for that, just like they hated me for it.  

And Jesus tells them, there’s nothing you can do about that.  They don’t hate you because of anything specific that you’ve said or done.  They hate you because you follow me.  The only way you can get them to stop hating you is to stop doing what I’ve told you to do, stop saying what I’ve told you to say, and stop living like I told you to live.  The only way you can get them to stop hating you is to go along with them and be like them.  If you go along with what the world wants, they won’t hate you anymore.  But you won’t be my disciples anymore, either.  You won’t be able to call yourselves my followers.  You’ll be following the world, not me.

Those are things Jesus tells us, too.  If we stay true to Jesus, there are people who are going to dislike us.  They may even hate us.  The only way to stop that is to stop following Jesus and to follow the world instead.  

Maybe we don’t feel that so much here, in small-town South Dakota.  But at the same time, I suspect it affects us.  It’s just that we’ve gotten used to it, so we don’t really think about it.

But just how open are we really willing to be about our faith?  How often do we talk about it with people?  How often do we even do something like posting about it on facebook?  I mean, we might make some soft, generic statement about believing in God, although we might not even do that.  But how many of us are willing to really take a stand, to really be bold about our Christian faith?

I don’t say this judgmentally.  Maybe you are willing to do that.  In fact, you may be more willing to do that than I am.  Because I have to admit there are times when I’m not as open with my faith as I should be.  There are times when I back off about it, times when, in effect, I censor myself.  I’m not proud of that, but it’s true.  And I don’t think I’m the only one.

Why do we do that?  Because of what Jesus said.  We’re afraid that if we’re really bold about our faith, if we really stay completely true to Jesus, people will dislike us.  They may even hate us.  We don’t want to get into arguments about our faith.  We don’t want to have to defend our faith.  And so, we back off.  We soft-pedal it.  We censor ourselves.  We make compromises with the world, rather than standing up the way Jesus did.

I would think that the disciples had those same fears.  And I think Jesus knew that.  That’s why Jesus told them one other thing.  He told them that, even though he was leaving, he was not leaving them alone.  He said, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.  And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

The Advocate.  What we now call God’s Holy Spirit.  Jesus will send the Holy Spirit from God the Father.  The Holy Spirit is a spirit of truth.  And he will testify about Jesus.

I wonder if the disciples understood what that meant.  I doubt it.  But at the same time, it must have made them feel better.  Jesus was leaving, and that made them sad.  But at least they knew someone was coming.  And that someone was being sent by Jesus, so they knew it would have to be someone who was pretty good.  And knowing that, they could be confident in their faith.  They could stand up to the world, if they needed to.  They could handle it even if the world hated them.  Because they knew the Lord was still with them.  And knowing the Lord was with them, they could deal with anything that could happen, even if it was something that looked really bad.

Jesus tells us that, too.  Jesus tells us that we are not alone.  The Holy Spirit is with us.  The Holy Spirit is a spirit of truth.  If we are on the side of truth--God’s truth-- the Holy Spirit will help us deal with whatever may happen.

Knowing that, let’s do what the disciples did.  Let’s be confident in our faith.  Let’s stand up to the world, when we need to.  Let’s not compromise with the world.  Let’s not soft-pedal our faith or censor ourselves out of fear.  Let’s be bold about our faith in God.  Let’s be bold about saying that Jesus is the Savior.  Because that’s the truth.

It’s a human thing to want the approval of the world.  But it’s a Christian thing to want the approval of Jesus Christ.  Let’s speak out and live out our faith the way Jesus told us to.  If we do that, the Holy Spirit will help us stand up to the world.

 

A High Standard of Love

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are John 13:1-17.

            Have you ever washed someone’s feet?

            Well, if you have kids, you obviously washed their feet when they were little.  But that’s not what I’m talking about.  Have you ever washed someone’s feet?  Or, have you ever had someone wash your feet?

            Back in Jesus’ time, it was not all that uncommon.  But it was not something people liked doing very much.  I mean, think about what feet were like at that time.  If you were lucky, and wealthy, you had a pair of sandals to wear.  If not, well, you went barefoot.  And there was no such things as a paved road back then.  You walked on the dirt.  If it rained, you walked in the mud.  You probably stepped on rocks and thorns and all sorts of other things.  And people raised animals, so there were other things to step in, too.

            So feet were, by and large, filthy.  And they were ugly.  They were calloused.  They were not in good shape at all.  Now think about having to wash those, filthy, ugly, calloused feet.

            It was not a pleasant job at all.  If you were an ordinary person, of course, you had to wash your own feet.  But wealthy people, who had servants, could have someone wash their feet for them.  And because it was a lousy job, it would be the job of the lowest servant on the ladder.  The new guy, or the young person with no seniority, someone like that.  They were the one who would get the job of washing feet, because it was a terrible job that no one wanted to do.

            Our Bible reading for tonight takes place on the night of Jesus’ betrayal.  We’re told there’s a meal in progress.  It was known as the Passover meal at the time.  Today, Christians refer to it as the Last Supper.  Judas knows he’s going to betray Jesus.  Jesus knows it, too.

            All of a sudden, Jesus gets up.  As the story is related to us, he does not say a word.  He just gets up, and he takes off his outer clothing.  He wraps a towel around his waist.  He pours water into a basin.  And he starts washing the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel.

            Again, as the story comes to us, no one says a word.  No one asks Jesus what he’s doing, and Jesus does not explain it.  The disciples just sit there, silently, as Jesus goes among them.  First one, then another, then another, washing their feet.  No sound but the splashing of the water.

Then he comes to Simon Peter.  And if there was one person who was going to say something, that’s who it would be.  And he does.  Simon Peter says, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

            We’re not specifically told this, but I have to think Simon Peter was appalled.  The Messiah, the Lord, the Savior, the divine Son of God, is going to wash his feet?  That’s not right.  That’s not what the divine Son of God does.  That’s what the lowest servant does.  Simon Peter cannot believe this is happening.  He refuses to allow it to happen.

            But then, Jesus says it’s something that’s necessary.  And to Simon Peter’s credit, he not only allows it, he wants more.  He still does not understand it, but if it’s something that has to happen for him to stay with Jesus, then he wants as much of it as possible.

            Jesus finishes with Simon Peter.  He goes on to the rest of the disciples, and again, as far as we know, no one is saying anything.  Even Thomas, who can usually be counted on to ask about stuff like this, does not say anything.  Jesus gets through all the disciples, he puts his clothes back on, and he comes back and sits down.  And then he explains it.  He says:

Do you understand what I have done for you?  You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.  Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

            Jesus could say so much in so few words sometimes.  He’s telling them, look, you acknowledge that I am greater than you.  And yet, being greater than you, I have done this job which only the lowest of the low usually do.  So that tells you that you should never think that any job is beneath you.  And you should especially never think that there’s nothing you could do for someone else that’s beneath you.  When you can help someone, help them.  Period.

            That’s what Jesus says to us, too.  When we can help someone, we should.  Period.

            And the thing about Jesus is, when he says to do something, and when he models that behavior himself, there are no half-way measures.  Jesus is all in.  Think about what he did here.  He did not wait for the disciples to ask for someone to wash their feet.  He just saw the need and did it.  He did not ask the disciples if they’d like him to wash their feet.  He just saw the need and did it.  In Simon Peter’s case, he did it in spite of his protests.  Jesus saw that this lousy, disgusting, menial task needed to be done, and he did it.  Period.

            And here’s another thing about that.  All twelve disciples are there with Jesus when he does this.  In other words, Judas is still there with Jesus when he does this.  Judas, who is going to betray Jesus.  Judas, whose actions are going to lead to Jesus being arrest, and beaten, and tortured, and killed.  Judas is there with all the disciples.  And Jesus, knowing all that Judas is going to do, washes Judas’ feet.

            What do you supposed Judas felt?  Did he have any second thoughts?  Did he feel any shame or remorse?  Or did he think, well, I must be going to get away with it?  After all, if Jesus knew what I was going to do, he surely would not wash my feet, right?  

            That’s what I mean when I say Jesus was all in on this.  Jesus calls us to extreme service, because extreme service comes from extreme love.  Jesus told us to love everyone.  No exceptions.  We are to love even our enemies.  And Jesus demonstrated that in about as unforgettable a way as possible, washing the feet of Judas, the man who was about to betray him.  And Jesus told the disciples, and he tells us, to do the same.

            That’s a pretty high standard.  One of the hardest things Jesus tells us to do is love our enemies.  But now, it seems like Jesus is going even beyond that.  We are to serve our enemies.  We are to do the smallest, lowest, most menial tasks for our enemies.

            And if I’m honest about it, I’m really a little uncomfortable preaching about this.  Because I fall far, far short of this standard.  I’m not even remotely close to it.  I can say this should be our goal, and it should be.  But is it?  Is it for me?  Because if it’s a goal, then we need to do something about achieving it.  We need to make some sort of a plan for how we’re going to meet that standard.  And quite frankly, as I stand before you tonight I have not done anything about achieving it.  I don’t have any plan at all.  And I have not even taken the first step toward making one.

            So, if you’re like me, what do we do?  Do we just let it drop?  Do we just say, well, that’s a nice story, and yeah, that’s something we should do, and then just go home and forget about it?  That’s what we’re tempted to do.  It’s what I’m tempted to do.  But we know that’s not what Jesus wants us to do.

            It seems to me that, before we can even make a plan that’s meaningful, we need to have the desire to actually do this.  Because the best plan will fail if we don’t have a desire to carry it out.  So then the question becomes, where can we get that desire?  It would be great if our love of God and our belief in Jesus was enough to give it to us.  And obviously, it should be.  But, for some of us it’s not.  And so, the only way I can see to get that desire is through the power of the Holy Spirit.

            Now, it’s easy to use that as an excuse, too.  We say, well, I just have to wait until the Holy Spirit strikes.  And so we do nothing.  That’s not the way to do this.  God’s Holy Spirit does not force His way into our hearts.  We need to invite Him in.  The Holy Spirit may encourage us to do that.  The Holy Spirit may knock on the door of our hearts, asking to come in.  But the Holy Spirit does not force His way in.  We need to open that door.

            So, it’s up to you.  And it’s up to me.  Are we going to take Jesus’ example seriously?  Are we going to be willing to do the smallest, most menial tasks?  And are we willing to do them even for our enemies?

            If so, invite the Holy Spirit in.  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you chances to serve.  But be ready.  Because my experience is that, when we ask the Holy Spirit to give us chances to serve, the Holy Spirit answers pretty quickly.  And often that answer comes in ways we never expected.

            Jesus showed us what to do.  It’s up to us to allow God’s Holy Spirit to help us follow His example.

 

Keeping the Purpose in Mind

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, March 7, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Mark 12:13-27.

            We live in a time in which nearly everything has a political aspect to it.  The coronavirus became political.  Dr. Seuss became political.  Even Mister Potato Head is now political.  It’s getting very hard to find anything that is not political, or at least that does not have a political aspect to it.

            But this is not the first time in human history this has happened.  When you read the gospels, you can see that almost everything was political in Jesus’ time, too.  And people were always trying to get Jesus to take sides on those current political issues.

            It’s instructive, then, to look at times when people tried to draw Jesus into commenting on political issues, and to see how Jesus responded.  We have a couple of examples of that in our Bible reading for today.

            The first thing we need to note is the reason why people were trying to get Jesus to speak out.  We’re told that the Pharisees and the Herodians went to Jesus, “to catch him in his words.”  In other words, they wanted Jesus to speak out so they could get him into trouble.  Because that’s the thing about political issues:  there are always people on both sides, right?  So no matter which side you take, you’re going to get the people on the other side upset with you.  That’s just a fact of life.

            And that’s what the Pharisees and Herodians were trying to do with Jesus.  They wanted him to take a side, so that the people on the other side would stop following him.  And the think they’ve got the issue that will do it.  They ask Jesus about whether Jewish people should pay the imperial tax to Rome.

            Now, we hear that today, and we tend not to understand what the issue was all about.  We think of the imperial tax as being a tax like you and I pay.  We pay all kinds of taxes, and while no one likes them, we all pretty much accept taxes as the way things are.  It’s the cost of having a government.

            But that’s not what the imperial tax was.  The imperial tax was a tax that was imposed only on people whom the Roman government had conquered, such as the people of Israel.  It was not imposed on Roman citizens.  It was a sign that Jewish people were of second-class status to Rome, a reminder that Rome was in charge and that the people of Israel were not.

            So this was a controversial issue.  And the Pharisees and Herodians thought they had Jesus boxed in.  If he said yes, pay the tax, then a lot of Jewish people, who thought the Messiah was going to come to restore Israel to its former glory, when it had an empire, were going to be upset.  But if Jesus said no, don’t pay the tax, the Roman government might well come after him, because he was an important person who was telling people to not recognize the authority of the Roman government.  That could lead to chaos and even an attempt at revolution.

            And Jesus refuses to take the bait.  He does not say yes, pay the tax.  He does not say no, don’t pay the tax.  He reframes the issue.  And in doing that, Jesus focuses people on doing what’s right in God’s eyes.  He focuses people on serving God.  And he does that with a simple statement:  “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.”

            In other words, Jesus says that what the government does is not our primary concern.  Following God is our primary concern.  Obeying God and serving God are our primary concerns.  The government will do what it will.  But our allegiance is to God.

            Then the Sadducees come to Jesus with a question.  At first it might not seem like a political question, but at that time it would’ve been.  The question involved Old Testament law, and to their credit it does look like the Sadducees quoted the law correctly.

            They cite a law from Moses which said that, if a man died leaving no children, the man’s brother should marry the man’s wife and so keep the brother’s genealogical line going.  They then concoct a scenario in which seven brothers all die leaving no children.  Each of them followed the law and married the oldest brother’s wife.  So, they asked, whose wife will she be in heaven?

            The reason this is an issue is that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection.  Maybe that’s why they were sad, I don’t know.  But this was again a trick, a trap.  Because there’s no good answer to that question, right?  Whoever you name, and whatever your reasons are, they can be mocked and ridiculed.  And that was the Sadducees’ point:  they were trying to show that belief in a “resurrection” is ridiculous, because you’d run into too many awkward and just plain weird situations if it was true.

            And again, Jesus refuses to take the bait.  He tells them that their question is based on a false premise, which is that relationships in heaven will work exactly the way relationships on earth do.  Jesus says that’s not how it’s going to work at all.  The dead will rise, but we won’t be the same in heaven as we are on earth.  And so that question collapses.

            Now, understand, Jesus was not someone who shied away from controversy.  He got into all kinds of arguments with all these groups--Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, teachers of the law, all the religious authorities you can think of.  And Jesus did not mince words.  He referred to them as fools, blind guides, hypocrites, vipers, serpents, and other things.  Jesus was willing to take stands that he knew were going to upset people.

            But what Jesus did was keep his focus.  Jesus kept his focus on God.  He kept it on worshiping God.  He kept it on teaching people about God.  Jesus kept his focus on loving God and serving God and being faithful to God.

Jesus knew that taking a stand on the imperial tax was not going to further his mission.  He knew that it would not bring anyone to faith in God.  He knew it would not result in people loving God or loving their neighbors.  Taking a stand on the imperial tax would make some people happy and others unhappy, but it would not result in anyone being saved.  And as it says in John Three, Seventeen, Jesus came so that the world might be saved through him.

            So, does that mean Christians cannot speak out on political issues?  Well, we can, obviously.  But should we?  That’s a little trickier.  Maybe, sometimes.  But how do we decide?

            I think the way we decide is the way Jesus decided.  When a political issue comes up, we need to ask ourselves:  will my taking a stand on this help bring people to faith in God?  Will it show love to God or show love to my neighbor?  Will it result in other people loving God or loving their neighbors?  Will it result in anyone being saved?

            Because as Christians, those are our goals.  That’s how we can be faithful to God.  That’s how we can serve God.  Sure, speaking out on political issues can be satisfying.  Sometimes it can make us feel really good.  But will it further our mission as Christians?  Will it bring people to Christ?  Is it what God really wants us to do?

            And you say, well, but if Christians don’t speak out, the non-Christians will win by default.  And society will move farther away from what God wants it to be. 

            Well, that could happen.  But it happened in Jesus’ time, too.  Our reading for today takes place in the last week of Jesus’ life on earth.  After Jesus was killed, there was a big crackdown on Christians.  They were persecuted.  The disciples scattered, leaving Jerusalem and going off in every direction.  You’d have said then that society was moving farther away from what God wanted it to be, too.

            But it was not.  Because when the disciples scattered, they took the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.  And they spread it to every part of the known world.  And by doing that, they changed the world.  But they did not do that by speaking out on political issues.  They did it by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They did it by leading people to faith in Jesus as the Savior. 

            The politicization of absolutely everything is nothing new.  It happened in Jesus’ time, too.  I’m sure it was tempting for Jesus to comment on all kinds of things.  And you could argue that, on occasion, he did.  But he did not give in to the temptation to comment just to make himself feel good or to show how smart he was or for anything having to do with his own personal satisfaction.  Jesus kept his purpose in mind. 

Jesus’ purpose was not to make political converts.  His purpose was not to remake society.  A lot of people would’ve liked him to do that.  Some of his own disciples would’ve liked him to do that.  But that was not his purpose.  His purpose was to save souls.  His purpose was to lead people to eternal life.

That’s our purpose, too.  As Christians, our purpose is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Our purpose is to bring people to Jesus Christ.  Our purpose is to love God, to love others, and to go and make disciples.  Let’s keep those purposes in mind, and let’s act in fulfillment of them.

Loving Each Other

This is the message given in the Wednesday night Lent service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on March 3, 2021.  The Bible verses used are John 15:1-17.

            It’s the last night of Jesus’ life on earth.  He’s talking to the disciples.  This will be his last chance to tell them what they need to know before he leaves them.

            The disciples know Jesus is leaving.  It’s hard to tell whether they really understand that he’s going to be killed, and they almost certainly don’t understand what that means.  But they know he’s leaving, and he’s leaving soon.  So they’re paying pretty close attention to what Jesus is saying.

            Jesus uses the analogy of branches on a vine.  That’s something the disciples would’ve understood.  Branches take their life from the vine.  The branches can stay healthy and fruitful and productive--as long as they stay with the vine.  But if the branches get cut off from the vine, if they are no longer fed by the vine for any reason, they will dry up and wither and be useless.  The only thing you can do with them is burn them.

            But how can they stay with Jesus, how can they be fed by Jesus, if Jesus goes away?  Jesus tells them.  He says “remain in me, and my words remain in you.”  In other words, Jesus is telling them, remember everything I’ve told you.  Everything about God, everything about how to treat people, everything about how to live your lives.  Remember all my words.  Take them into your hearts.  Share them with others.  He tells them that if they do this, they will show themselves to be Jesus’ disciples and they will bring glory to God the Father.

            And Jesus says it again in a different way.  He says, “Keep my commands”.  If they do that, they will feel Jesus’ love, just as he kept the commands of God the Father and felt God’s love.  

            I wonder how the disciples felt, hearing Jesus say all this.  I suspect they were wondering if they could really do this.  Could they really remember everything Jesus had told them?  They’d been with Jesus for three years.  Could they really remember everything Jesus had said over those three years?  Could you or I do it?  Think about all the things the Bible tells us Jesus said.  Can you remember them all?  Neither can I.  And then, think about the fact that Jesus said a whole lot of other things that are not recorded in the Bible.  How were the disciples going to remember all that?  

            And then, too, time was going to pass.  It was going to be a longer and longer time since Jesus had been with them.  How could they keep from forgetting?  I mean, I’m sure they would try, but after all, people are people.  We all forget things over time.  How long were they going to remember all the things Jesus told them?

Jesus may have sensed how they were feeling.  Because he then says this:  My command is this:  “love each other as I have loved you”.  And then, just a little while later, Jesus says it again:  “this is my command:  love each other.”

            In effect, Jesus tells them, don’t worry about remembering everything.  Just remember the love I have for you, and give that same love to each other.  If you ever have any doubt about what I’d want you to do in a given situation, just think of the best way you can show love in that situation.  If you do that, if you act in loving ways, if you think loving thoughts, if you speak loving words, you’ll be doing what I want you to do.  You’ll be keeping my commands.  

            And that’s what Jesus says to us, too.  If we want to stay with Jesus, if we want to be fed by Jesus, if we want to be healthy, fruitful branches, staying on the vine, we need to love each other.  If we don’t remember what Jesus said, if we can’t remember what all his commands were, we can always fall back on this.  Love each other.  Love people as Jesus loved them.  Act in loving ways, think loving thoughts, speak loving words.  We’ll always be doing it right if we do that.

            It’s simple.  But simple is not the same as easy.  And sometimes this is not easy.  Because Jesus’ command is not that we love each other once in a while.  Jesus’ command is not that we love each other when we feel like it.  Jesus’ command is not that we love each other as long as it’s not too big of an inconvenience to us.  Because Jesus goes on to say this:  “Greater love has no one than this:  to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

            That’s a tough standard.  That’s a complete, total love.  That’s extreme love.  That’s the kind of love Jesus wants us to have for others.  And for Jesus, that was not just big talk.  Jesus lived that out.  And he died that out.  Jesus laid down his life for all of us.

            Now, in one sense, that’s awesome.  Because what Jesus said he was doing was laying down his life for his friends.  That means that you, and I, and everyone else who believes is Jesus’ friend.  

            Now, I know that’s not a brand new thought--after all, one of our favorite old hymns is “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”.  But I don’t think we stop and consider what an incredible thing that really is.  That Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Messiah, the Holy One, the Divine Son of God, that he truly considers us friends.  That knowing everything about us, knowing all the mistakes we make and all the flaws we have and all the sins we commit, knowing how selfish and arrogant and uncaring we can be, Jesus still considers us his friends.  And he loves us with such an extreme love that he laid down his life for us.

            But in another sense, this is scary.  Because I don’t know that I could do that.  I’d like to think so.  I’d like to think there are at least a few people I’d be willing to lay down my life for.  But would I, really?  I don’t know.  I’m not sure it’s possible to know unless you’re actually in the situation.  And the thing is, I don’t really expect to ever be in that situation.  I could be--none of us ever knows what life may hold for us--but I don’t expect it.  So I cannot say that I know whether I would be able to lay down my life for someone or not.  I don’t know whether I have that kind of extreme love.

            But as I thought about it, I wondered if there could be another way that we lay down our lives for others.  Not literally, maybe.  But at least to a certain extent.

            Here’s what I mean.  How do we measure our lives?  By units of time, right?  Minutes.  Hours.  Days.  Weeks.  Months.  Years.  Those are the things by which we measure our time on earth.  Those are the units by which we measure our lives.  And those things are something we can never get back.  When a minute, when an hour, when a day is gone, it’s gone.  We can move on to the next one, but we can never go back and re-live the last one.  It’s behind us.  Forever.

So it seems to me that, when we give up some of those units of time for others, we are, in effect, laying down a little bit of our life for them.  Not our entire life, obviously, but a part of it.  Because we’ve given them a part of our lives that we can never get back

            So, wherever we give something selflessly, with no thought of getting anything in retire, we lay down a little bit of our life for someone.  Whenever we make time for someone who needs us, even though we think we’re too busy, we lay down a little bit of our life for them.  Whenever we make time to get involved in a project that helps someone, even though we can think of a lot of other things we’d rather be doing, we lay down a little bit of our life for someone.  Whenever we give to a worthy cause that helps people, even though there are lots of other things we could do with our money, we lay down a little bit of our life for others.

Those things are not always easy to do, either.  They may not be the same as physically giving up our entire life for others, but they’re still often not easy.  And again, they’re not things Jesus told us to do once in a while.  They’re not things Jesus told us to do when we feel like it.  They’re not things Jesus told us to do as long as it was not too much of an inconvenience.  These are things Jesus told us to do all the time.  These are not supposed to be occasional things in our lives.  They’re supposed to be our lifestyle.

I don’t know about you, but I cannot do that on my own.  Maybe you can.  If so, that’s great.  But I cannot.  I can do them once in a while, but not all the time.  My selfishness, my self-centeredness, my arrogance, and all sorts of other things get in the way.

So if you’re like me, then during this period of Lent, let’s ask God to come into our hearts.  Let’s ask God to help us make this our lifestyle.  Let’s ask God to help us get rid of our selfishness, our self-centeredness, our arrogance, and all the other things that are stopping us from laying down our lives for others.  Let’s ask God’s Holy Spirit to come into our hearts and show us all the ways we can give up our time for others.  And then, let’s ask God to help us actually do all those things God has shown us to do.

It’s not an easy thing.  But it’s what Jesus tells us to do.  And Jesus will help us do it.  He is the vine.  We are the branches.  Let’s allow Jesus to feed us with his love.  And then, let’s let our lives reflect Jesus’ love.  Let’s lay down our lives for others, the way Jesus did.  If we’re asked to lay them down all at once, may God give us the courage to lay them down all at once.  But if we’re asked to lay them down a little bit at a time, may God give us the courage to lay them down a little bit at a time.  If we do, we will keep Jesus’ command that we love each other.