God's Temple

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 23, 2022.  The Bible verses used are 1 Corinthians 3:6-17.

            First Corinthians Three, Sixteen says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”

            It seems to me that this one little verse--just one sentence, seventeen words--says an awful lot to us.  The first thing it says, at least to me, is that each and every one of us is very special and very important to God.  I mean, think about this.  You are God’s temple.  Not just your physical body, but everything about you.  Your mind, your heart, your body, your soul.  Your hopes, your dreams, your fears, your desires.  Everything about you, everything that makes you you, is God’s temple.

            That’s pretty cool, you know.  Because the temple was a really special place.  Especially the original temple, the one built by King Solomon.  The Bible goes on and on about that first temple.  It gives the exact dimensions of it, which were directed by God.  It gives all the materials the temple was made out of, which were also directed by God.  

And this first temple was made out of the best, the most expensive stuff available.  It was made of cedar and juniper.  It was made of special stone from a special quarry.  There were all sorts of ornate carvings.  And everything was overlaid with silver and gold and bronze.  There were tens of thousands of people who worked on that first temple, and it still took them seven years to build it, that’s how incredible it was.  And of course, the cost of it was enormous.  It’s been estimated that it would cost well over two hundred billion of today’s dollars to build that temple.

            And the thing is, the Apostle Paul, and the people of Corinth that he was writing to, would’ve known all that.  What Paul was telling them, and what Paul is telling us, is that each one of us, you and me, is just as valuable as that temple.  Each one of us is just as beautiful as that temple.  Each one of us has been created out of the best stuff available.  And each one of us has been made according to exact specifications that came from God.

            That’s pretty awesome to think about.  If that does not make us feel good about ourselves I don’t know what will.  To think that we were made to God’s exact specifications with as much care as it took to make the most beautiful, most expensive building that has ever existed on earth.  That’s pretty good.

            But of course, there was a reason the temple was made the way it was.  Maybe you know what it is.  The temple was not just a place of worship, the way the church is now.  The temple was thought of as, quite literally, the house of God.  The temple was where God lived.  That was not just a metaphor or something--they believed in it literally.  The temple was where God physically lived.  That’s why it was so important that it be built the way it was.  They were not just building a house of God.  They were building a house for God.  And they wanted to build a house that was worthy of God, to the extent that it’s possible for humans to build a house that’s worthy of God.

            So when Paul says “the Spirit dwells in your midst”, that was not just poetic license.  That was not just something Paul was saying because it sounded good.  Paul meant it literally.  Paul was saying that just as God lives in the temple, the Spirit of God lives in each of us.

            Now that’s a pretty awesome thing to think about, too.  To think that God’s Spirit physically lives in each one of us.  That God’s Spirit lives in me.  That God’s Spirit lives in you.  That the Spirit of the Almighty, all-powerful God would live in us.  That’s quite an honor.  That’s pretty good, too.

            But while it’s a pretty awesome thing to think about, it’s also a pretty awesome responsibility.  Because just as the temple was made to be a house worthy of God, to the extent it’s possible for humans to do that, you and I need to make ourselves worthy of God, to the extent it’s possible for us to do that.  If you and I are God’s temple, if God’s Spirit is going to literally live in us, then we need to do everything we can to be that perfect, beautiful temple that is worthy of having God live in it.

            What does that mean?  Well, it means we need to take a look at every aspect of our lives.  Because, as I said, when Paul says that we are God’s temple, he’s talking about every aspect of our lives.  Our physical body is part of it, but only a part.  Our thoughts are part of it, too.  So are our feelings.  Our minds, our hearts, our bodies, our souls, our hopes, our dreams, our fears, our desires, everything about us, everything that makes us who we are, is part of God’s temple.

            That means we need to make everything about ourselves worthy of God, to the extent that we possibly can.  Our thoughts need to be worthy of God.  Our words need to be worthy of God.  Our feelings need to be worthy of God.  Our emotions need to be worthy of God.  Our hopes and dreams need to be worthy of God.  If you and I are God’s temple, then everything about us needs to be worthy of God.

            That’s a pretty tall order.  I certainly have not done it.  I’ve had my moments--I suspect each of us has had our moments--but I certainly am not worthy of having God dwell in me.  I don’t know anyone who is.

            But maybe that’s the point.  Because you know, as great and fantastic as that first temple was, for all the billions of dollars and all the man-hours it took to build it, it still was not really worthy of being the house of God.  It may have been the best, fanciest, most expensive building that ever was or ever will be, but it still was not worthy of being a place for God to live.  It’s simply not possible.  No building built by humans, no matter how much it costs or how long it takes to build, could ever be worthy of being the dwelling place of the almighty, all-powerful, awesome, perfect, holy God.

            And no human being, no matter how good, no matter how righteous, no matter how generous or loving or caring they are, can ever be worthy of being the dwelling place of the almighty, all-powerful, awesome, perfect, holy God either.  It’s simply not possible.  That is, it’s not possible for us.  But it is possible for God.

            See, God takes our best efforts and makes them better.  That first temple, as great as it was, was not worthy of God.  But God took the best efforts of the people of Israel and blessed them and made them worthy of God.  And that’s what God will do for us.  God will take our best efforts and bless them and make them worthy of God.

            So our part in this, what we need to do, is make sure we’re giving God our best efforts.  Our thoughts are not going to be worthy of God--but we need to make our best effort to make them that way.  Our words--certainly my words--are not going to be worthy of God--but we need to make our best effort to make them that way.  Our feelings, our emotions, our hopes, our dreams, are not going to be worthy of God--but we need to make our best effort to make them that way.  If we do, then God will take our best efforts and bless them and make them worthy of God.

            And the best way I know to do that is to spend time with God.  That means prayer, of course, and it means reading the Bible, but it also means just spending time in God’s presence.  Spending time thinking about who God is.  Spending time thinking about all the things God does.  Spending time thinking about all the times God has been there for us.  Spending time thinking about all the gifts God has given us.  Spending time thinking about all the times we did not get what we wanted, but later on got something better.  Spending time thinking about how everything we have and everything we are comes from God.

            If we spend that kind of time with God, we’re more likely to give God our best efforts.  Not out of force or obligation, but because we’ll want to.  When we think about how awesome, how incredible God is, when we think of everything God has given us, we want to give God our best efforts.  It does not feel like an effort.  It feels like a joy.

            So this week, that’s what I’d invite you to do.  Spend time with God.  Think about who God is and what God does.  Think of all the gifts God has given you.  And then give God your best efforts.  God will bless those efforts and make them worthy of God.

            You, and I, are God’s temple.  God’s Spirit dwells within us.  That’s an incredible honor.  Let’s do our best to be worthy of it.

 

Sharing the Proof

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are 2 Timothy 2:8-19.

            The Apostle Paul did a lot of writing.  Most of the New Testament is the letters of Paul to various churches or, as in this case, to individuals.  There are thirteen of Paul’s letters in the New Testament, some of them pretty long.  And I have no doubt that Paul wrote a lot of other letters which, for whatever reason, are not included in the Bible.

            And yet, for all of his writing, Paul never lost sight of his essential message.  He states it time and time again.  It’s the very first sentence of our reading for tonight.  “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.  This is my gospel.”

            For all of the things Jesus did while he was on the earth–for all of his teaching and healing and miracles and driving out demons and all that–for Paul, these were the essential things to know about Jesus.  He was descended from David, and he was raised from the dead.

            Why is that?  Why would Paul not focus on the love of Jesus?  Why would Paul not focus on the power of Jesus?  Why would Paul not focus on the wisdom of Jesus?  Why are those two facts–that Jesus was descended from David, and that he was raised from the dead–why are those two things the essentials of Christian faith, according to Paul?

            The reason is because those two things–that Jesus was descended from David, and that he was raised from the dead–are the two things that prove Jesus actually is the Messiah.  He actually is the Savior.  He actually is the divine Son of God.

            After all, there have been lots of people who have talked about the importance of love, and lots of people who have shown love.  There have been lots of people who had power.  There have been lots of people who have wisdom.  And don’t get me wrong, those are all good things.  I’m not criticizing them.  But if those things are all that you know about Jesus–that he loved people, that he had power, that he was wise–you would not recognize him as the divine Son of God.  He might be a great guy.  He might be a great teacher.  He might even be a prophet.  But you would not know he was the Savior.  You would not know he was the divine Son of God.  To know that, you need to know that Jesus was descended from David and that he was raised from the dead.

            Now, today, we sometimes think, what’s the big deal about being descended from David?  But it was a big deal, and really it still is, because of the Old Testament prophecies.  The Old Testament prophets had said the Messiah would be descended from David.  We read in Jeremiah Twenty-three, Verse Five, “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.’”  That’s why the gospels of Matthew and Luke both give us lengthy genealogies of Jesus, showing that he was, in fact, descended from David.  That Jesus is descended from David was and is proof that Jesus is the Messiah, the divine Son of God.

            But of course, there had been lots of people who had been descended from David, too.  After all, King David lived somewhere around one thousand B. C.   A thousand years later, he’d have had lots of descendants.  Jesus being descended from David was still important, but he shared that distinction with a lot of other people.  What distinguished Jesus from all those other descendants of David is that he was raised from the dead.

            That’s the proof.  Human beings, even great human beings, are not raised from the dead.  When a human being dies, they stay dead, at least in earthly terms.  And when Jesus was killed, everyone expected that to happen to him, too.  

And I mean, everyone.  Even his closest followers.  Remember how the women went out to the tomb on that first Easter morning?  They were not going out there to see if Jesus was in the tomb.  They knew he was in the tomb.  They were going out to prepare his body for burial.  And when they saw that he was not there, they did not assume he’d been raised from the dead.  They assumed his body had been moved, and they were trying to figure out where it had been moved to.

            That Jesus had actually been raised from the dead was the last thing anyone expected.  It was the ultimate proof that Jesus was who he said he was.  That he was the Savior, the divine Son of God.  That’s why, when the Pharisees found out what had happened, they bribed the guards to say that they’d fallen asleep and Jesus’ disciples had stolen the body.  They knew that if the truth came out, if people knew Jesus had been raised from the dead, they would know who Jesus was.  They would know that he was, in fact, the Messiah.

            That’s why, for all the things Paul wrote in his letters, he made sure this stayed at the forefront–that Jesus was raised from the dead.  No matter what else he wrote about, no matter what other issues he was dealing with, Paul made sure not to lose that main point–that Jesus was raised from the dead.  

In fact, he said that was so important that he was willing to endure anything in order to spread the word about it.  He did not care about what might happen to him as a result.  If he died, he’d be with Jesus.  Listen to what he says:  “If we died with Him, we will also live with Him.  If we endure, we will also reign with Him.”

That’s faith.  That’s an incredibly strong faith.  To say, if I die for Jesus, it’s okay, because I’ll go to heaven and live with Jesus.  And if I don’t die, but simply have to endure suffering until Jesus comes again, that’s okay, too, because then I’ll reign with Jesus.  Either way, I win.

How strong is your faith?  How strong is my faith?  Could we say what Paul said?  Could we say that if I die for Jesus, it’s okay, if I have to endure suffering for Jesus, that’s okay, too, because as long as I have faith in Jesus, I’ll win?

If not, why not?  Because we’re not the Apostle Paul?  Well, we’re not, but is that really an excuse?  I mean, suppose I’m standing before the Lord, and the Lord asks why I was not able to endure suffering for Jesus, and I say, well, come on, I’m not the Apostle Paul.  You think that’s going to fly?

Paul goes on to say this:  “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”  

That phrase, “do your best”, is important.  It’s good news in one sense, because it says God does not expect perfection from us.  God knows we’re going to slip, we’re going to make mistakes, we’re going to fail.  There will be times when our resolve does not stay firm, when our faith does not stay strong.  God knows perfection is beyond our ability, and God does not expect it of us.  God just wants us to do our best.

But having said that, it’s also important that we actually do our best.  Because it can be really easy to use that as an excuse, too.  “Sure, I’m not as good as the Apostle Paul, but I’m doing my best.”  Now, if that’s actually true, that’s fine.  But here’s the question–are you doing your best?  Are you really doing your best?  Am I really doing my best?  Or are we settling for something less?  Are we settling for a mediocre faith, a lukewarm faith, a faith that does not want to make waves or cause problems for anyone?  Including ourselves?

Now, I want to make clear I’m not saying we need to earn our way into heaven.  We go to heaven by our faith in Jesus Christ, not by the things we do.  But if we have faith, we need to do the things Jesus told us to do.  And Jesus told us to go and make disciples.  And to make disciples, we need to make sure people know who Jesus is.  And they cannot know who Jesus is unless they know Jesus was raised from the dead.

So, we need to do our best–to truly do our best–to make sure people know who Jesus is.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven by doing it.  But simply because it’s what Jesus told us to do.  Simply because it’s the right thing to do.  Because our goal is to help other people find their way to faith in Christ.  Our goal is to help other people find their way to heaven.

“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.”  That was Paul’s gospel.  It needs to be our gospel, too.  And we need to share it with everyone we can.

 

What Love Means

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 16, 2022.  The Bible verses used are 1 John 5:1-12.

            Do you love God?

            I assume most of us would say we do.  But what, exactly does that mean?  What do we mean when we say we love God?  

            I don’t know that we talk about that very much.  We should.  After all, loving God is one of the most basic things there is about Christian faith.  In fact, it goes back long before Christ.  In Deuteronomy Chapter Six, when the early nation of Israel is being taught the basics of their faith, the first thing they are told is:  “Hear, O Israel.  The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  The idea that we need to love the Lord our God shows up over and over again in the Old Testament.  

And then, of course, in the New Testament, Jesus himself said the most important commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”  So, obviously, loving God is essential to our Christian faith.  But what does it mean to love God?

Or, let’s look at it another way.  If someone asked you to prove that you love God, how would you do that?  What would you say?  What would your evidence be?  How could you prove, to someone else’s satisfaction, that you love God?

Now, I’m not saying we should allow anyone else to judge our faith.  The only one who can truly judge our faith is God.  The point is that loving God cannot just be something we say.  The love of God needs to be something real in our lives.  And loving God cannot be real in our lives unless we know what it means to love God.

Luckily for us, the Apostle John, in our reading today, tells us what it means to love God.  And it turns out that it’s pretty simple.  He says, “this is love for God:  to keep his commands.”

It’s simple, and yet–there are a lot of times when we don’t want to accept it.  We’re like the guy Jesus was talking to in Matthew Nineteen.  Remember that story?  A man comes up to Jesus and asks what he needs to do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus says, keep the commandments.  And the guy says, “Which ones?”

Which ones?  You know, there may be times when we’re not really sure what God wants us to do, but that’s not really the biggest problem we have.  Most of the time, we know what God wants us to do.  It’s just that, sometimes, we really don’t want to do it.  We don’t really want to keep all of God’s commands.  Some of them are hard.  Some of them require us not to do things we’d like to do, or to do things we’d rather not do.  Some of them might make us unpopular.  So we say, can’t I love God by just keeping some of God’s commands, rather than all of them?

Well, yes and no.  I mean God’s not keeping score.  God’s not sitting in heaven watching our every move with a big red pen in his hands, waiting to give us a big check mark every time we fail to keep one of God’s commands.  God knows we cannot be perfect, and God does not expect us to be perfect.  But if we truly love God, we should do our best.  We should try to keep God’s commands–all of God’s commands–as well as we can.

Look at it this way.  Suppose you’re married, and your spouse has a list of things they want you to do.  And you look at the list, and there are some things that are going to be hard to do.  There are some things that are going to take a lot of time.  There are some things that are going to be unpleasant.  To come to the point, there are some things on that list that you really would rather not do.

But what would show more love to your spouse?  If you just choose to do some of those things?  If you just choose to do the easy things, the things that won’t take long, the things that are fun?  Or if you do all of the things your spouse wants you to do, regardless of what they are or how long they’ll take or anything else?

That’s how it is with God’s commands.  If we look at the things God wants us to do, and we decide to just do the easy things, the things that don’t take much of a commitment, the things that are going to be fun, how much love does that show to God?  It does show some, I think–I’m not saying that it shows no love for God at all.  But it does not show as much love to God as it would if we decided to try to keep all of them.  If we decided to do the hard things, the things that are not much fun, the things that do take a deep commitment.  That would show more love to God, don’t you think?

So the question is, how do we get there?  And again, luckily for us, John gives us the answer.  He tells us that God’s commands are not actually that hard at all.  Why not?  Because “everyone born of God has overcome the world.  This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world?  Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

So that’s what it comes down to.  Do we really believe that Jesus is the Son of God?  Now, again, I suspect most of us here, maybe all of us here, would say that we do.  And I believe that, to some extent, we do.  But how much do we believe that?  Do we completely and totally believe it?  Is our belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God strong enough to overcome our reluctance to do the things God asks us to do?  Even when they’re hard?  Even when they’re not much fun?  Even when they’re not really what we want to do?

Here’s another way to say it.  When we think doing the hard things, the un-fun things, the things God wants us to do that we’d rather not do, what is it that keeps us from wanting to do them?  It’s our worldliness, right?  It’s caring more about the things of the world than the things of God?  We’re concerned about pleasing people, rather than pleasing God.  We’re concerned about having time to do the things we want to do, rather than the things God wants us to do.  We’re concerned with making sure we can provide for ourselves, rather than trusting in God to provide for us.  We’re in the position of Simon Peter when he was trying to tell Jesus what to do.  Jesus said to Peter, “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

It’s easy to have those human concerns.  After all, we are human.  But that’s why we need to overcome the world.  If we overcome the world, those human concerns go away.  As John wrote, if we truly love God, we can overcome the world.  And if we overcome the world, then God’s commands are not burdensome. But the only one who can overcome the world is the one who believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

So what it means to love God, really, is to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.  To really believe.  To fully and completely believe.  To believe so much that our belief overcomes the world.  To believe so much that we can put our human concerns behind us, and fully focus on the concerns of God.  To believe so much that doing the things God wants us to do does not seem hard or burdensome.  To believe so much that we want to follow all of God’s commands, that we are happy to follow all of God’s commands, because there is nothing more important in our lives that showing love to God.

That kind of total belief, that kind of complete love, should be one of the goals of every Christian.  Now, that’s not say that we’re suddenly going to become perfect.  The greatest heroes of the Bible all failed sometimes.  Moses failed.  David failed.  Peter failed.  James and John failed.  If they all failed, we cannot expect that we will never fail.

But here’s the thing:  when they failed, they eventually recognized their failing.  And they repented.  And they asked God for forgiveness.  And they continued to believe.  They continued to have faith.  And they started again to follow all of God’s commands, and to allow nothing in their lives to become more important than showing love to God.

The way we show love to God is to keep His commands.  At first, that sounds like a hard thing.  But it’s really not.  Not if we truly believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, as the Son of God.  So let’s truly believe in Jesus.  Let’s believe in Jesus so much that our belief overcomes the pull of the world.  Then God’s commands won’t seem burdensome at all.  Because there will be nothing more important in our lives than showing love to God.

 

Evangelism or Excuses?

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on January 9, 2022.  The Bible verses used are 2 Timothy 1:1-14.

            Do you consider yourself an evangelist?

            I suppose to answer the question, we first need to talk about what an evangelist is.  We tend to think of somebody like Billy Graham, you know, someone who stands on a big stage and preaches God’s word and does altar calls and things like that.  And of course, that’s one way to be an evangelist, but it’s not the only way.  An evangelist, really, is someone who tries to spread the word of God.  An evangelist is someone who tells people about the salvation and everlasting life that’s available through faith in Jesus Christ.

            So, let me ask you again.  Are you an evangelist?

            I hope that at least some of us answered yes.  If you did, the rest of this message really is not aimed at you.  You’re welcome to listen to it, but the rest of this message is really aimed at those of us who said no, that we are not evangelists.

            Now, if you said no, I want you to know I’m not mad at you.  I understand.  I don’t necessarily consider myself an evangelist, either.  I mean, yes, I can stand up here and talk about God’s word and salvation and eternal life through faith in Jesus.  But do I do it in other places?  Not so much.  Do I do it with people I don’t know?  Not really.  Do I do it with people I do know, but who may not believe in Jesus?  Not really there, either.

            So I understand if you say no, you’re not an evangelist.  But here’s the question:  why not?  Why are you not an evangelist?  Why am I not an evangelist?  Why is so hard, both for you and for me, to share God’s word with people?  Why is it so hard for us to tell people that they can be saved through faith in Jesus Christ?

            Now understand, I’m not suggesting we should open every conversation by telling people they need to be saved.  But as we go through our day, and we see the people we see and talk to the people we talk to, there are often chances to bring God into the conversation.  There are often chances to talk about our faith in Jesus, just as a natural part of talking about the things we talk about.  Not always, but more frequently than we probably realize.  And we let them go by.  We let them go by, sometimes, because we’re not looking for them and so we miss them.  But a lot of times, the reason we’re not looking for them is that this is something we simply do not want to do.  We don’t feel comfortable doing it.  In fact, if we’re really honest with ourselves, a lot of times the thought of having a conversation like that really kind of scares us.

            Of course, we’d never say it that way.  We make excuses for ourselves.  We say things like, well, that’s just not something I’m very good at.  I don’t know how to do that.  That’s not one of the talents God gave me.  Besides, I don’t need to talk about my faith.  I show my faith by the way I live my life.

            Any of those sound familiar to you?  They do to me, because I’ve said them, many times.  I’ve made all the excuses for not talking about faith.  But the bottom line is that that’s what they are, excuses.  Because Jesus told us to go and spread the gospel.  He told us to go and make disciples.  He did not make it optional.  He did not tell us to do those things if we think we’re good at them.  He did not tell us to do those things if we feel comfortable doing them.  He did not tell us to do those things if we thought God had given us a special gift or talent for them.  He did not tell us to do those things as long as were not scared of doing them.  He told us to do them.  Period.

            In our Bible reading for today, the Apostle Paul is writing to his friend Timothy.  And it sounds to me like Timothy had the same problem you and I have.  And it sounds to me like Timothy was probably making some of those same excuses you and I make.  And it also sounds like Paul saw through all those excuses.  He knew that the real reason Timothy did not want to go and spread the gospel was because he was scared of doing it, just like you and I are sometimes.

            And so, Paul tells Timothy some things to give him courage.  Listen to what he says:  

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and s            self-discipline.  So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me...He has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.

Paul is telling Timothy, you need to be afraid to do this.  You have power.  Not because of who you are.  This is not about you.  It’s not about how good you are or how talented you are or how great a speaker you are or any of that.  None of that matters.  The power you have does not come from you.  The power you have comes from God’s Holy Spirit.  All you need to do is trust that.  All you need to do is trust God’s Holy Spirit and step out in faith.  You’ll be doing what the Lord wants you to do, and if the Lord wants you to do something, the Lord will give you everything you need to do it.  There’s nothing to be afraid of.  Just do it.

There’s one other thing Paul says there.  It’s something we really don’t want to face.  At least I don’t.  But if we’re honest--if I’m honest--I have to admit that it’s a factor here.  It’s when Paul says, “Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord.”

We don’t want to think about that.  We don’t want to admit to it.  We say, hey, wait a minute.  I’m not ashamed of the testimony about Jesus.  I’m proud of God’s word.  I’m proud of what Jesus did for me.  I’m not ashamed of any of that.

And Paul says, oh, yeah?  Then why don’t I hear you talking about it?  Why do I hear all these excuses instead?  Paul says to us--Paul says to me--if you’re so proud of God’s word and you’re so proud of what the Lord did for you, why do you only talk about it when you’re in church?  Why do I hear excuses instead of evangelism?  What’s stopping you?

When we strip everything else away, what’s really stopping us is fear.  Fear and a lack of trust in God.  When we strip away all the excuses, when we do away with all of our so-called reasons for why we cannot talk to people about the salvation and eternal life that’s available to them through Jesus Christ, that’s what we’re left with.  Fear and a lack of trust in God.  We’re afraid we’ll do it wrong.  We’re afraid we’ll turn people off.  We’re afraid people might not like us.  We’re afraid our reputation might suffer.  We’re afraid we won’t be able to think of the right words to say.  We don’t have the courage to trust that, when the time comes, God’s Holy Spirit will give us the right words to say.  And so we don’t try.

And again, I feel this every bit as much as anyone else does.  And so, I don’t have an easy answer.  I’m not saying God’s going to send us to hell if we don’t do this.  But I do think God is disappointed.  Because, again, this is something Jesus told us to do.  Jesus did not make it optional.  Jesus just said do it.  With no exceptions granted and no excuses accepted.

So what can we do?  How can we start trusting God enough to spread the word about salvation and eternal life?  How can we start taking advantage of those openings in conversations as they come up?

Well, here’s what I think it comes down to.  Do we believe that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life?  Do we believe that faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior is the way to heaven?  Because if we do--if we really believe that--then we have to admit that there are people we know who are not going to go to heaven.  Because I suspect each one of us knows people who have not accepted Jesus as the Savior.  At the very least, there are people whom we’re not sure have accepted Jesus as the Savior.  

So, if we truly believe that faith in Jesus is the way to heaven, and if we want those people to be in heaven, then we need to do whatever we can to bring them to faith in Jesus.  That means we need to stop making excuses.  That means we need to have the courage to talk to people about faith in Jesus Christ.  We need to look for those openings in conversations to tell people about Christ, and we need to take advantage of them when we get them.

And remember, we don’t do this alone.  We could not do this alone.  By ourselves, you and I cannot bring people to faith in Jesus.  But we don’t do it by ourselves.  We have the power of God’s Holy Spirit.  We have God’s Holy Spirit to lead us.  We have God’s Holy Spirit to guide us.  We have God’s Holy Spirit to inspire us.  We have God’s Holy Spirit to tell us what to say and what to do.  All we need to do is take that step out in faith.  All we need to do is let our faith in God be bigger than our fears.  All we really need to do is trust God.

Some of us are already evangelists.  But all of us are called to be.  So let’s stop making excuses, and let’s stop being ashamed of our faith.  Let’s let people know about the salvation and eternal life that’s available to them through faith in Jesus Christ.  Let’s not let people we know miss out on that.  God’s Holy Spirit will be with us.  And we know that with God, all things are possible.

 

God's Love

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 9, 2022.  The Bible verses used are 1 John 4:7-21.

Do you believe that God cares about you?  

When I ask that, I’m not asking whether you believe God cares about the world, or whether God cares about human beings.  I’m asking whether God cares about you.  Specifically, you, as an individual.

           It’s an important question.  And I think the way we answer tells a lot about how we think about God.

It’s understandable why some people struggle with believing God cares about them individually.  I mean, we’ve talked about this before, but think about who God is.  This is the almighty, all-powerful God we’re talking about.  This is the God who just had to speak a word and the entire universe was created.  This is a God who is bigger and greater and stronger and more powerful than anything we could ever imagine.

           Now think about who we are.  We’re small, puny, tiny.  We must be less than insects compared to God.  Could you care about an insect?  An insect’s a pest, right?  Do you care about a pest?  

And the other thing is, there are an awful lot of us pests.  Over seven billion at the last estimate.  Even if God wants to, can God even keep track of that many of us, let alone care about us as individuals?

          It’s understandable why some people say no.  One of the most prominent among them is the famous physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking.  Several years ago, he flatly said that it would be impossible for God to care about seven billion individuals.  In fact, he used that as proof of the non-existence of God.  Dr. Hawking said about the way Christians view God, “They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship.  When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible.”

           It’s obviously not just Dr. Hawking who thinks that way.  There are millions of people who claim to have a belief in God, but who don’t think God takes any active interest in human life.  It’s often referred to as the Watchmaker Theory:  God created the universe in much the same way a human would make an old-fashioned watch.  God then “wound up” the universe, so to speak, and then let it go, to tick on its own.  God may be observing what happens, but God does not take any action to influence it.  God has left us to our own devices, to sink or swim on our own.

          When we read the Bible, though, it’s clear that the Bible does not endorse that theory.  The Bible regularly shows God taking an active interest in human affairs and taking action to influence them.  But even so, when we read the Old Testament, it’s hard to find much that leads us to believe God actually cares about you and me individually and personally.

           The Ten Commandments are great, but they say nothing about love or caring or anything like that.  There’s a lot in the Old Testament that shows God caring about the people of Israel, God’s chosen people, but that’s a promise to Israel as a nation, not as individuals.  There are a few select leaders who seem to achieve a personal relationship with God, but that kind of personal relationship does not seem to have been available to most people.

           That’s the reason the priests made all the ritual offerings and sacrifices we read about in the Old Testament.  Common people did not have individual access to God, so they needed the priest to go to God for them.  God was thought of as being God of the big picture.  God would take care of the people of Israel generally, but God did not necessarily take care of individual people.

           That’s one of the reasons so many people had a hard time accepting Jesus as their Savior.  The idea that God would take human form, that it was possible to have a direct, one-on-one relationship with God, was not the way most people thought about God at that time.  It did not make sense to them. 

Even if they could conceive of God wanting a direct relationship with individuals, they’d have expected God to go to the top people, the priests, the Pharisees, people like that.  That’s not what Jesus did.  Instead, he spent time with the common people, or even to the outcasts, the lowest people in society.  It did not make sense to them that God would want a one-on-one relationship with people like that.

One of the greatest and most important things about the story of Jesus is that Jesus was God living on the earth, having a direct, personal, one-on-one relationship with human beings.  Not just the privileged few, but all human beings, including the common people and even the lowest of the low.  All of Jesus’ life involved God having that personal relationship with people on earth.  Not only that, but because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, each of us can still have that personal relationship with God if we accept Jesus as our Savior.

That’s incredible, you know?  It seems amazing to me every time I think about it.  God, this being that is beyond my comprehension, wants to have a personal relationship with me, as weak and sinful and inadequate as I am.  There’s no logic that explains that.  There’s no good reason I can think of for God to want that relationship.  The only reason there can possibly be is love.  God wants that relationship with each one of us, as weak and sinful and inadequate as we all are, just because God loves us.

There’s a phrase our scripture used twice today.  I’m sure you’ve heard it many times before, but I don’t know that we always really think about it.  The phrase is this:  “God is love.”

“God is love.”  Think about that.  It’s not “God loves.”  It’s not “God has love.”  It’s not “God feels love.”  It’s “God is love.”

Love is an intrinsic part of who God is.  Love exists because God exists.  God could not exist without loving, any more than you and I can exist without breathing.  God does not stop and think about loving us, any more than you and I stop and think about taking our next breath.  God just does it.  God loves us because that’s who God is.  The almighty, all-powerful God is also the all-loving God.

Our scripture also says, “Love is from God.  Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”  Because God is love, and we are created in God’s image, we, too, have the ability to love.  We don’t have that ability without God; in fact, our scripture says, “whoever does not love does not know God.”  Without God, there is no love.  Love exists because God exists.

That’s true whether we know it or not.  It’s true whether we’re aware of it or not.  There are people who don’t believe in God who are still able to love.  Why?  Because God is living in them, whether they realize it or not.  Our scripture says, “Those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

That’s amazing, really.  God loves each one of us so much that God will live in people who do not even acknowledge God’s existence.  Even when we’re apathetic, even when we resist, even when we actively try to fight God, God still keeps working on us and working in us.  God never gives up on us, because God loves us.

Our scripture says, “If we love one another, God lives in us, and God’s love is perfected in us.”  When we show love to someone, in that moment, we are as close to God as we can ever get.  When we truly show love, when we do something for someone with no plan of getting anything in return and without it even occurring to us that we might get something in return, we act in as much of a God-like way as it’s possible for us to act.  And if we can get to the point where doing that comes naturally to us, where we do it without even thinking about it, then God’s love truly has been perfected in us.

Our scripture closes by saying, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.”  That’s the other thing we get from that one-on-one relationship with God.  We don’t have to live in fear of God, because we know God loves us.

In Old Testament times, people feared God.  The psalms and the proverbs even say that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.  That’s why following all those Jewish laws was considered so important.  People were afraid that if they did something wrong, God would punish them.

That idea does not show up in the New Testament.  Why?  Because we know what they did not know in Old Testament times.  We know that Jesus is God, and that God is love, and that where there is love there can be no fear.  When the Holy Spirit is in our hearts, when we have a personal relationship with God, we no longer have to live in fear of punishment.

            Now, obviously, that does not mean we’re free to do anything we want.  What it does mean is that we’re free to live as God wants us to live.  We don’t have to constantly look over our shoulders.  We don’t have to worry that God’s watching our every move, waiting for us to step out of line.  Instead, we’re free to go out and show God’s love to people everywhere and at all times.  We don’t have to live in fear.  We don’t have to worry about following all the technical rules.  The only rule we have is God’s rule, and that’s love:  love of God and love of each other.

            There is nothing we can ever do or say or think or feel that will keep God from loving us.  God always loves us.  God loves you, and God loves me.  God is love.

 

Three Hundred Sixty-five Blank Pages

The message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church Sunday night, January 2, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 43:15-19.

            It’s a new year.  2021 is over!  It is now 2022.

            When you think about it, New Year’s Day is probably about the most arbitrary holiday we have.  There’s no real reason the year needs to start on January first.  It could start on April twelfth or July ninth or October twenty-first.  And there’s no real reason to make a big deal out of the start of a new year anyway.  There’s nothing special that we’re commemorating.  There’s nothing important that happened on this day.  We simply turn a page on the calendar.  We change one digit in the way we track the years.  That’s it.  It’s no big deal.

            But when you think about it some more, turning that page on the calendar is kind of a big deal.  Because when you turn that page, the next page is blank.  In fact, there are three hundred sixty-five blank pages.  Do you ever think of a year that way?  Three hundred sixty-five blank pages.  And each one of us is going to write a story on each one of those pages.

            And the things is, each of those stories is going to be different.  There will be some common elements--elements of comedy, of tragedy, of drama, of warmth.  Elements of all the things that make up life.  But how much of each of those elements there will be, what order they will come in--that will be different for each one of us.

            And there’s one other thing that’s going to be different for each one of us.  That’s how we handle all those elements of life.  And that may be the most significant difference of all.  Because we know, as the author of Ecclesiastes tells us, that in life there’s a time for everything.  Weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, love and hate--there’s a time for all of those things.  And the chances are that all of those things will show up on some of those blank pages that are stretching in front of us in this new year.

            So, how do you feel about that?  Are you happy, eager, looking forward to what’s going to happen, to how you’re going to fill those three hundred sixty-five blank pages that make up 2018?  Or are you worried, apprehensive, fearful of what may happen, of what those pages may hold?  Or, are you just kind of blasé about the whole thing, just kind of neutral, figuring that whatever happens is what’s going to happen and that’s just the way it is?

            I’m not saying that any of those attitudes is wrong.  It’s not like our outlook on 2018 is sinful, whatever it is.  But I think God tells us how God would like us to feel in our reading from Isaiah for today.

            Listen to this part of our reading again:

I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.  This is what the Lord says--Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

To me, God sounds excited in that passage.  God is eager to do something new.  God is so fired up about this new thing God is going to do that God can hardly wait to get started on it.  And God wants us to get just as excited about this new thing that God is going to do as God is.  I think you can just sense that excitement in the words God says there.

            And it makes perfect sense to me that God would be excited about this.  I mean, think of a time you decided to create something.  You were excited about it, too, right?  We’re always excited when we decide to create something.  And the farther we get into it, and the more we can see that it might turn out to be something good, the more excited we get.  And as it starts to really take shape, we just can hardly wait to show it to someone.  And of course, when we do, we’re hoping they’ll be just as excited as we are about it.  We want them to share the excitement we feel over this thing that we’re creating.

            I think God feels that same way.  I mean, God must enjoy creating, right?  God created this world and everything in it.  And God did that with care.  God did that with love.  God did that with attention to detail.  Think of all the things that have to be just right for the world to be the way it is, for the world to work the way it does.  When God created the world, God created a hundred, a thousand, a million things that would work together in just exactly the right way for everything in the world to work right.  You only do that when you love to create.  God loves to create.  And God is happy when we appreciate God’s creativeness.

            Our future, our 2022, is going to be created by God.  Yes, the things we do have an impact on it.  The things other people do have an impact on it, too.  But if we truly mean what we say in our prayers, if we really mean it when we say “Thy will be done”, if we really surrender to God’s will and allow God’s Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us through life, our 2018 will be created by God.

            So I think that, in large part, how we feel about those three hundred sixty-five blank pages that will make up our 2022 depends on how much we trust God.  Do you, do I, trust God enough to allow God to write what goes on those three hundred sixty-five pages?  And do you, do I, trust God enough that we believe whatever God writes on those pages will be good, will be right, will be best not just for ourselves but for everyone else, too?

            This is not a rhetorical question.  I want us all to think about it.  Including me.  We know what the answer should be.  We know we should trust God with those three hundred sixty-five pages.  But the question is not should we trust God.  The question is do we trust God.

            Because the truth is that it’s not always easy.  It’s not always easy to trust God.  Each one of us, sitting here today, has hopes and dreams of what 2022 might bring.  We may not have told anyone about them.  We may not have even really thought them through ourselves.  But we have them.  They may not be for anything fancy or special.  They might be--we might have hopes of getting a better job or a new relationship or better health.  We may have hopes that things will get better for a loved one.  But our hopes may just be that our lives will continue on the same path they are right now, because we’re happy that way.

            But whatever it is, we all have hopes and dreams of what 2018 might bring.  That’s natural.  But our hopes and dreams for 2022 may not be the same as God’s hopes and dreams for us in 2022.  They might be, but they might not.  God may have an entirely different plan for those three hundred sixty-five blank pages.

            Now, sometimes we can see that God’s plan is a lot better than ours.  When that happens, we eagerly jump on God’s plan.  But sometimes, we cannot see that.  In fact, sometimes we don’t understand God’s plan at all.  Sometimes God’s plan makes no sense to us whatsoever.  Sometimes we look to the heavens and say, “God, seriously?  This is your plan for me?  This is where you want me to go?  This is what you want me to do?  For real?  How’s that ever going to work?”

            It’s okay to ask questions like that.  For one thing, asking questions like that helps us be sure that what we see really is God’s plan.  Asking those questions can clarify in our mind if we really are being led by God, or if there’s something else going on here.  

For another thing, God never minds if we ask honest questions.  Remember the story of God telling Moses to go to Egypt and tell the Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go?  There’s page after page of Moses questioning God.  And God does not get mad at Moses for asking those questions.  God just patiently answers them all.  God does not mind if we ask questions.

But, just as with Moses, there comes the time where we realize that God has answered all our questions.  And there’s only one thing left to be decided.  Are we going to follow where God is leading us or not?  Are we going to trust God enough to follow God’s plan, even when it’s different from our plan?  Do we have enough faith in God to follow God’s plan even when we don’t understand it and even when, maybe, it really does not make any sense to us?

God has given us the gift of 2022.  Three hundred sixty-five blank pages.  God wants to do a new thing for each one of us on those pages.  It is springing up even now.  May each of us trust God enough to allow God to write on each of the three hundred sixty-five blank pages that will make up our 2022.

 

Confirmation Class

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, January 2, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Luke 2:21-38.

            Well, Christmas is over.  So is New Year’s.  Tomorrow will be just another Monday.  The kids will be back in school.  Everyone will go back to work.  Christmas is over.

And too often, that’s how we look at it from a faith standpoint.  We drop Christmas as soon as it’s over.  We leave the baby Jesus in the manger and go on to something else.

But of course, Joseph and Mary could not just go to something else.  They had to deal with the reality of raising this baby, this divine Son of God that they had responsibility for.  That’s quite the responsibility.  So, obviously, they wanted to do it right.  So they presented Jesus at the temple.

 First, of course, Jesus was circumcised when he was eight days old.  That was in accordance with the law.  In fact, today would be anniversary of that–it’s eight days after Christmas today.  Then, we’re told of Jesus being presented at the temple of the Lord.  This happened, according to Luke, “when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses”, which would have been forty days after Jesus was born.  That means that at some point in those forty days, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus made the trip from Bethlehem to Jerusalem.  

That was not a long trip--it was about six miles.  But, of course, Mary and Joseph would’ve had to walk it, carrying Jesus, so it’s not like it was really easy.  You and I would probably be really upset if we had to walk six miles carrying a baby.  But back then, it was just the way things were.  People were used to walking everywhere they needed to go.  It was no big deal.

So Mary and Joseph walk the six miles from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, and then walk some more until they get to the temple.  They buy the required sacrifice.  And while they’re there, they meet two people.

The first was a man named Simeon.  Simeon lived in Jerusalem, and he had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he saw the Savior.  This day, this day when Mary and Joseph are presenting Jesus at the temple, the Holy Spirit told him to go to the temple courts.  We don’t know if the Spirit told him why, but he went there.  And he saw Jesus.  And as soon as he saw Jesus, Simeon knew that this was, in fact, the Savior he had been kept alive to see.

And as you read what Simeon said, you get the impression that Simeon understood, far better than most people at that time, just who the Savior was going to be.  Most people at that time thought the Savior would be a great king, someone who would return Israel to power as a great nation.  But look at how Simeon describes Jesus:  “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”  And then he tells Mary:  “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.  And a sword will pierce your own soul, too.”

Simeon understood that Jesus was not going to be a political leader.  He was going to bring salvation to both the Gentiles and the Jews, but that salvation would be spiritual salvation, not a political salvation.  And he would cause “the thoughts of many hearts” to be revealed, both for better and for worse.  Simeon understood exactly what kind of Savior Jesus was going to be.

And then we meet Anna.  Anna was a prophet.  She was eighty-four years old.  We’re told she had lived with her husband for seven years after their marriage and had been a widow ever since.  Assuming she was married young, as was often the case at that time, Anna may have been a widow for sixty years or more.  I know there are people in our parish who’ve lost spouses, but think of that.  To be a widow or a widower for sixty years.  That’s a long time to be alone.

We’re told that she never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.  We don’t know how long she’d been doing that.  It was not necessarily for the whole sixty or so years she’d been a widow, or even for most of those years.  But it seems like it must have been a while.  And just as Simeon finishes talking, Anna comes up, gives thanks to God, and starts telling everyone about this child who’s going to be the Savior.

So what’s the point?  As we asked last week, why is this story in the Bible?  Is it just an interesting story, a little piece of the life of Jesus, or is there more to it?  What are we supposed to learn from this?

Well, I’m sure there’s more than one thing we can learn from it.  There almost always is, when we read the Bible.  But here’s the one I want to focus on today.

Have you ever had a time when you felt like God was giving you a message?  Or, have you ever felt like the Holy Spirit was leading you to do something, or to say something, or to go somewhere?  Or maybe you did not recognize it as the Holy Spirit, but you just felt like there was something inside you telling you that you needed to talk to some specific person, or go to some specific place, or do some specific thing.  You did not know why, but you just had this strong feeling that this was what you were supposed to do.  

Have you ever had that?  I think probably most of us have, at one time or another.  And probably most of us have followed that prompting, at least some of the time.

But here’s the thing.  Sometimes, we get that message, or we follow that prompting--we do what we’re led to do, we go where we’re led to go, we say what we’re led to say--and it seems like nothing happens.  And some time goes on, and nothing continues to happen.  And we start to wonder.  Did God really give me a message?  Was the Holy Spirit really leading me to do that, or say that, or go there?  Or was it something I made up, something I imagined, something that came out of my own head or from someone else and I just fooled myself into thinking it was from God?

When that happens, we need some confirmation.  We need to get some kind of a signal, some kind of sign.  We need something to encourage us to stay the course, something to let us know that yes, we really did get that message from God.  We really were led by the Holy Spirit.  God really did speak to us, and God really is going to be faithful and keep the words God said.

God does not always give us that confirmation, and God does not promise that God will give it to us.  Sometimes we’re asked to have faith and to trust and to keep believing.  But sometimes, God will give us that confirmation.  God will give us that encouragement.  God will give us a signal, a sign, that we really did get that message from God that we thought we did.

That’s what happened here.  Look at Mary and Joseph.  The angel Gabriel had told them that their child was the divine Son of God.  They’d listened, and they’d believed.  They’d gone everywhere they were supposed to go, they’d done everything they were supposed to do.  But still, they had to wonder.  You know, it had been several months, at least, since they’d heard from Gabriel about who this baby was going to be.  They had to be thinking, you know, our baby looks like any other baby.  He acts like any other baby.  Is he really going to be that special?  Are we really going to be raising the Savior of the world?  

And then, when they take Jesus to the temple, here come Simeon and Anna.  And they say, yes.  Yes, your child is going to be that special.  You really are going to be raising the Savior of the world.  All that stuff that Gabriel said is really true.  You really have received a message from God, and God will be faithful to God’s word.  That had to be a huge relief to them.  It had to feel so wonderful, to have someone come along and confirm that they really had received a message from God, that things were going the way they were supposed to go, and that they really could trust God’s promises.

You and I have been given messages from God, too.  There are places were supposed to go, words we’re supposed to say, things we’re supposed to do.  That’s true for us as individuals, and that’s true for us as a church.

And a lot of us have been doing them.  Some of us have been doing them for a long time.  And sometimes, we don’t seem to see any results.  We wish a Simeon, or an Anna, would come and confirm God’s message for us.  We wish they’d come and tell us that we really have received a message from God, that we really are doing what we’re supposed to do, that we really are going the way God wants us to go.  We wish they’d say things are going the way they’re supposed to go, that we really can trust God’s promises.

Well, we may not actually get Simeon and Anna.  But I think there are signs all around us, if we look for them.  I can’t speak to each person’s individual calling, but look at our parish.  Despite the pandemic, we’ve still kept our kids programs going in both Onida and Gettysburg.  In fact, the Faith Builders program has started to grow a little.  We don’t always have as many people worshiping in person, but we’re reaching people on the livestream.  We’re expanding our ministry, reaching people in other towns, reaching people who would never come here in person.  We’ve stayed in relatively good shape financially–we’re not exactly swimming in cash, but thanks to your generosity we’re getting our bills paid.  Despite everything, there are signs of all kinds of good things going on in this parish, if we just look for them.

Does that mean everything’s perfect?  Of course not.  Far from it.  We have challenges, and the pandemic has given us more challenges.  But you know what?  We’ll always have challenges.  Mary and Joseph had a lot of challenges, too.  God never promised us everything would be smooth and easy.  

But if we keep doing what we’re supposed to do, if we keep going where God wants us to go, things will go the way they’re supposed to go.  God will confirm God’s message to us in any number of ways.  God really is speaking to us.  And God’s word is always true.