Admiration and Gratitude Without Understanding

This past Monday was Memorial Day.  In recent years, Memorial Day has sort of become a day when we remember all of our loved ones who have passed away.  And that’s okay, I guess.  We should remember them.  But we should also remember that the original purpose of Memorial Day is to remember all those who died in service to our country.

I think it’s really hard for someone like me, who has never served in the military, to fully understand what it’s like to serve at all.  It’s probably impossible for me to understand what it’s like to be in combat, risking your life for the country.  I can admire the courage that it takes, and I can be grateful to all who’ve done it, but that’s probably about as close as I can come.

And of course, most of the people who’ve been in combat really don’t like to talk about it.  Part of that might just be that they don’t want to relive the experience, of course.  But I think they also feel that there’d be no point to talking about it.  I think they, too, realize that someone who’s not been there could never understand it, so there’s really no point in trying to explain what it’s like.

As I thought about that, I started thinking about what the gospels tell us about Jesus.  They tell us some of the things he did.  They tell us some of the things he said.  But they never tell us what he thought or how he felt.  They never tell us what it was like for Jesus to be Jesus, to be the divine Son of God.  We’re never told how Jesus felt when he worked a miracle.  We’re never told what Jesus thought when he was riding into Jerusalem to the cheers of the crowd.  We’re never told how Jesus felt when Judas betrayed him.

Maybe Jesus just didn’t want to talk about it.  But maybe there’d be no point in telling us those things.  Maybe it’s just not possible for you and me, as human beings, to understand what it’s like to be the divine Son of God.  Maybe we cannot understand what it’s like to work miracles.  Maybe we cannot understand what it’s like to have the Pharisees constantly trying to trick or trap you.  Maybe we could never understand it, and so there’d really have been on point in Jesus trying to explain what it was like.

We cannot understand it, but we can admire it.  We can admire the courage and the faith it took for Jesus to do what he did.  And we can be grateful that Jesus sacrificed his life on earth so that our sins could be forgiven and we could have eternal life.

Memorial Day is past now, of course.  But if you did not already, be sure to be grateful for those who’ve given their lives in service to this country.  And be grateful to Jesus Christ, who gave up his life on earth for our salvation.

Where Is Your Home?

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, May 26, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Revelation 21:10; 21:22--22:5.

            A new heaven.  A new earth.  And the Holy City, the New Jerusalem.  It comes out of heaven, comes from God, fully formed, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

            It sounds like quite a place, right?  The paragraph before this described all the beautiful, incredible, precious jewels the walls of the city will be decorated with.  We read that there will be no need for the sun or the moon, because it will be lit with the light of the glory of God, focused by Jesus, the Lamb, as its lamp.  

            There will be no night there.  The city gates will never be shut.  In other words, we won’t need to worry about being protected from anything.  We’ll have God Himself as our protector, and besides, there’ll be nothing we need to be protected from anyway.  “Nothing impure will ever enter” the city, “nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful.”

            There will be an abundance of everything.  There will be trees that yield a different crop every month, so we’ll have plenty to eat.  We will see the Lord’s face and His name will be on our forehead.  And the Lord will reign forever.

            It sounds like quite a place.  And that’s where we’re going someday, if we have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  The new earth.  The earth as it should be.  The earth as it was originally, before sin entered the world.  We’ll live in that New Jerusalem.  And when we go there someday, it’s going to be awesome. 

            But that’s for someday.  Because right now we live on the old earth.  And the old earth is--well, let’s just say that it falls a little short.  This is not the earth as it should be.  This is not an earth without sin--there’s plenty of sin on this earth, and as sinners we all participate in it all the time.  We all do things that are shameful or deceitful.  We have gates and doors that need to be shut, and locked, because there are lots of things we need to be protected from.  

            And this is the tension we live in as Christians.  We are called to be the people of God, people who are worthy of living in the New Jerusalem on the new earth.  But we don’t actually live there yet.  We live here.  So the question is, how do are the people of God supposed to live while we’re still on the old earth?  How do we live here while living as people worthy of living there?

            Billy Graham once said, “My home is in heaven.  I’m just traveling through this world.”  And as Christians, most of us would nod our heads in agreement with that.  But how many of us live our lives as if we truly believe it?  I’m not talking about agreeing with it as a theoretical theological point.  I’m talking about actually living our lives as if we believe we’re just travelers in this world.  I’m talking about truly feeling like we don’t really belong here, like we’re strangers in a strange land.  Feeling like people who may enjoy our time here, but who don’t really feel at home on earth, because we know earth is not our true home.

            I suspect not very many.  And it’s understandable.  This world, this earth, is the only home we’ve ever really known.  It’s the only frame of reference we have.  It’s the only thing we can relate to.  And so, we tend to treat this world as our home.  We don’t live like travelers, like strangers in a strange land.  We live like people who are at home where we are.  We live like people who belong here.  We live like people of the old earth, not people of the new earth.

            And that means that, as we live our lives, we try to fit into this world.  We go along with what’s considered normal in this world.  And again, it’s understandable.  It’s part of human nature to want to fit in.  It’s part of human nature to want to have friends.  It’s part of human nature to want to be part of the crowd.  Very few people want to be thought of as the oddball, as the strange one.  Most of us want people to like us and accept us.

And so we adjust our behavior in ways that will make that more likely.  We make compromises.  We continue to believe--but we don’t make a big deal out of it.  We continue to have faith--but we don’t make it too obvious.  We accept Jesus as the Savior--but we don’t talk about it to anybody.  After all, what would people think?

            I’m as guilty of this as anyone.  As I said, this is all part of human nature.  But at the same time, we should not use that as an excuse.  Because, again, while we currently live on the old earth, if we have faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior our destination is the New Jerusalem on the new earth.  But how do we avoid this?  How do we live here without conforming to the ways of here?

            This is one of the many things Jesus did for us while he was on earth:  he showed us how to live here while living as the people of God, the people of the New Jerusalem.  After all, Jesus did not belong to this world, either.  And yet he lived here.  And I suspect that, for the first thirty years or so of Jesus’ life he did fit in, more or less.  At least the Bible does not give us any indication that he did not.  In fact, it tells us how surprised the people of Jesus’ home town were when, about half-way through his ministry, he came back home.  He did not fit in anymore.  And we’re told that it was hard on him.

It had to be hard for Jesus to resist the temptation to compromise, to fit in.  And there had to be all kinds of people who were suggesting that he do it.  Luke Chapter thirteen tells us of a woman who had been bent over double for eighteen years.  She was unable to stand up straight.  She went to see Jesus on the Sabbath day, and Jesus healed her.

I don’t know, but I suspect there were people around Jesus who were saying, look, Jesus, don’t heal her today.  It’s the Sabbath Day.  I know you don’t believe in those rules about healing on the Sabbath, but you’re going to get yourself in trouble.  Just compromise.  Just a little.  Wait until tomorrow.  I mean, this woman’s been crippled for eighteen years.  She’s stood it this long, she can stand it one more day.  What difference will one day make?

 Jesus refused to do it.  Jesus refused to compromise, even a little.  He was not going to wait even one day to help someone who needed help.  He was determined to follow God, no matter how much trouble it might get him into.  He was determined to do what God thought was right, no matter how many humans might think it was wrong.  He was not going to live as a person whose home was the old earth.  He was going to live as a person whose home is the New Jerusalem in the new earth.

There were so many times in his ministry when Jesus could’ve compromised, could’ve tried to get along, could’ve tried to fit in.  People must’ve told him, Jesus, don’t argue with the Pharisees so much.  They’re not that bad.  Jesus, don’t talk about that “Messiah” stuff so much.  And for crying out loud, Jesus, don’t go chasing the money changers out of the temple with a whip!  After all, what will people think?

How many times do you and I compromise?  How many times do you and I just try to get along, just try to fit in?  How many times do you and I live as people whose home is this earth?  How many times do you and I worry about what people will think, rather than living as the people of God, the people of New Jerusalem on the new earth?

Again, it’s understandable, and I’m as guilty of it as anyone.  It’s understandable--but is it worth it?  Is it worth it to compromise rather than to do what Jesus said, to go and make disciples?  Is it worth it to fit in so people will like us, rather than to stand up and live out our faith in no uncertain terms?  Is it worth it to live as if our home is in this world, rather than to live as people whose true home is in the New Jerusalem?

In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  Which will it be?  Will we conform to the old earth?  Or we be transformed, living as the people of the New Jerusalem in the new earth?

It’s a question each of us has to answer.  And it’s a question each of us has to answer every day, because that temptation to compromise, to fit in, to go along and get along, comes every day.  I will say that the more we resist it, the easier resisting gets.  But it’s never easy, and we never completely get past it.  It’s a decision we have to make over and over again, a temptation we constantly have to face.

Jesus gave us the example.  And if we pray, the Lord will help us resist the temptation.  But still, the decision is ours.  We either live as people of the old earth, or we live as people of the New Jerusalem in the new earth.  May God give us the strength to make the right decision, and to keep making it every day.

The Way to Eternal Life

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, May 19, 2019.  The Bible verses used are John 6:35-58.

            Jesus made some very definite statements in our Bible reading for today.  “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.”  “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.  This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”  “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”  “Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

            Those words from Jesus seem to make it pretty clear.  Jesus said that belief in him is the way to eternal life.  And Jesus made other statements that are similar.  At John Fourteen, Six Jesus says “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  In the third chapter of John, Jesus says, “The Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him...Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

            If we believe that the words of Jesus are true, there does not seem to be any way around this.  Jesus said, quite plainly, that the only way to eternal life is through belief in him.  There’s no hesitation about it.  There’s no equivocation about it.  Jesus does not leave wiggle room there.  We can choose to believe Jesus’ words, or we can choose not to believe them, but we cannot be honest about it and not recognize what Jesus said.  Jesus said that the only way to eternal life is through him.

            As you heard, that was not a popular statement in Jesus’ time.  It’s not a popular statement today, either.  We’re not supposed to make black-and-white statements like that.  We’re supposed to see shades of grey.  We’re supposed to tolerate other points of view.  That’s especially true when it comes to religion.  We’re supposed to believe that all faiths are equal.  We’re supposed to believe that all roads lead to heaven.  We’re not even supposed to say that Christianity is superior to other religions, much less that belief in Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life.

            That’s true even among Christians.  A lot of us are uncomfortable saying that Christianity is the only way to eternal life.  And I can understand why.  It’s a statement that sounds kind of arrogant, right?  And arrogance is a sin, right?  Who do we think we are, that we think we have the only way to eternal life? 

Not only that, but saying that Christianity is the only way to eternal life sounds pretty judgmental.  What makes us think we have the right to judge people?  We’re supposed to leave judgment up to God.  Who do we think we are, that we think we can judge other people’s faith, or lack of faith, like that?

But here’s the thing.  What I think about this really does not make any difference.  What I say about this really does not make any difference.  I’m not the one who’s saying Christianity is the way to eternal life.  I’m not judging other people’s faith, or the lack of it.  I’m reading the words of Jesus.  I’m reading what Jesus said.  Again, we can choose to believe those words, or we can choose not to believe them.  But we cannot be honest and pretend Jesus did not say them.  And we cannot be honest and pretend Jesus did not really mean them. 

The words of Jesus are quite clear.  Jesus did not say that all faiths are equal.  Jesus did not say that all roads lead to heaven.  Jesus said the way to eternal life is through him.  And if we’re going to be honest, we have to deal with that statement.

Again, I understand why it makes people uncomfortable.  It makes me uncomfortable, if you want to know the truth.  I know people who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior.  I’m sure some of you do, too.  Some of them are my friends.  I don’t like to think of my friends missing out on eternal life.  I’d like it if I could say, well, if you just do your best and treat people well and try to be a good person, that’s good enough.  But that’s not what Jesus said.  Again, we can choose not to believe Jesus’ words if we want to, but we cannot be honest and pretend Jesus did not say them or that he did not mean them.  We either believe that Jesus was telling the truth or we believe he was not.  I’d like it if Jesus had provided an out for people who do not believe, but that’s not what Jesus did.

Jesus did not provide that out because Jesus is the out.  See, God does not owe it to any of us to give us eternal life.  None of us, Christian or non-Christian, deserves eternal life.  We are sinners who have fallen short.  But we’re provided an out through Jesus Christ.  God loves us so much that he sent Jesus into the world, so that whoever believes in him will not get what he or she deserves.  Instead, whoever believes will get eternal life.  Not because we’re so good, but because God is so good and loves us so much.  God does not give us what we deserve.  God, through Jesus Christ, gave us the chance for so much better than what we deserve.  God gives us the chance for eternal life.  And all we need to do is believe.

So, what does that mean for us?  Well, for one thing, it means we should be incredibly grateful to God.  If we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we should thank God every day that God gave us eternal life.  We should thank God every day that God does not give us the punishment we deserve for our sins.  We should thank God every day that God loves us so much that God sent Jesus, the divine Son, into the world so that, through our belief in him, we can have eternal life.  God would not have had to do that.  God did it out of love for us, a love we don’t deserve and could never earn.  We should always be incredibly grateful for that.

But it also means that we need to do everything we can to bring others to faith.  We need to do everything we can to convince people that Jesus Christ is, in fact, the Savior.  We need to do everything we can to bring others to eternal life.  Because again, if we truly believe what Jesus said, then there are people we know, right here in our own community, who are not going to have eternal life. 

And again, that’s not because of what I say or because of what I think.  What I say and what I think doesn’t matter.  I’m simply reading the words of Jesus Christ.  And again, we can choose not to believe them if we want to.  But if we do choose to believe them, then we need to take them seriously.

And that means that we have a duty, we have an obligation, to continue to reach out to people.  We have a duty, we have an obligation, to try to bring people to faith.  We have a duty, we have an obligation, to try to fill this church on Sunday morning.  Not because I want to be the pastor of a big church, but because we don’t want people in our community to miss out on eternal life.  This is not something we do for ourselves.  It’s something we do for others.  It’s something we do out of love, love for God and love for other people.

And this is not our duty as United Methodists.  It’s our duty as Christians.  Every Christian church in town has that same duty, that same obligation.  I hope they take it seriously.  I hope we take it seriously.  We’re not in competition with the other Christian churches.  We’re on the same team.  If everyone in town was coming to church on Sunday morning, our Christian churches would not be big enough to hold them all.

So how do we do this?  Because one of the things that holds us back is that we’re afraid we’ll offend people.  We’re afraid that if we reach out too much, if we try too hard to bring people to church, they’ll get mad at us.  I think we tend to overestimate the chances of that happening, but certainly, we don’t want to be obnoxious about it.  We don’t want people to roll their eyes whenever they see us coming.  There is a certain amount of tact and discretion that needs to be involved here.

So, what should we do?  Well, for one thing, we should pray.  But we should pray for some specific things.  We should pray for God to put us in the path of people who do not believe in Jesus Christ.  Some of them probably already are in our path.  If they’re not, pray for God to send you where you will meet them.  After all, Jesus told us to “go” and make disciples.  Jesus did not say for us to sit and wait for God to send people to us.  He told us to go, go where they are.

Then, we should pray for God to give us the faith, and the trust, and the courage, to talk to them about Jesus.  We need to both share God’s word with them and show God’s love to them.  Because God does love them.  God loves everybody.  And God calls us to love everybody, too.  Again, that’s why we want to bring people to faith--because we do love them and we don’t want them to miss out on eternal life.  That love needs to be present in all of our interactions with people, but especially in our interactions with people who don’t believe.  As has been said, you and I may be the only Bible some people ever read.  We need to make sure people are seeing God’s love in us.

We won’t always succeed.  Even Jesus did not always succeed.  But we need to try.  And we need to keep trying.  And we need to not get discouraged if we don’t see immediate results.  We’ve talked before about how God is a long-term God.  We need to be long-term Christians.  God never gives up on anyone.  We should not give up on anyone, either.

Jesus said that he is the way to eternal life.  If we believe that, we need to do everything we can to help others have that eternal life.  It’s our duty as Christians.  It’s our obligation as Christians.  And it’s the most loving thing we can do.

The Sacrifices of Jesus

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, May 12, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Mark 6:1-6.

            I’ve had several “home towns” in my life.  Maybe some of you have, too.  When I was growing up, Delmont was my home town.  I went to school in Vermillion of seven years, first to the business school, and then to law school, and that felt like my home town.  I lived in Pierre for six and a half years after that, and that was my home town.  We lived in Wessington Springs for seventeen years, and that was my home town.  Then we got our first United Methodist appointment in North Sioux City.  And then we came here, and all three of the towns of the Wheatland Parish now feel like our home towns.

            For the divine Jesus, of course, there was no such thing as a home town on earth.  The home of the divine Jesus was in heaven.  But Jesus was also fully human, of course, and for the human Jesus, Nazareth was his home.  As far as we can tell, he grew up there.  He spent most of the first thirty years of his life there.

           Because there’s no evidence to the contrary, we assume that Jesus lived a pretty ordinary life there during that time.  He was a carpenter.  His earthly family was there--our Bible reading mentions his mother Mary; four brothers, James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon; and some unnamed sisters.  Presumably he had friends there, too, some of whom he’d probably known since he was a little kid.

            Our best guess, as far as I could find out, is that about a year and a half had passed since Jesus had started his traveling ministry.  Jesus had done a lot of things in that time.  He had healed people.  He had worked miracles.  He had preached to thousands of people.  And now, a year and a half later, after all that he had said and done, Jesus was coming home.

            I would think that thought would’ve made Jesus happy.  Seeing all these people he had not seen in quite a while.  Finding out what had happened to them.  Getting to eat Mom’s home cooking.  And, of course, being able to go to the synagogue and teach and do the things for his old friends and neighbors that he’d done for so many people in so many other places.

            Except, of course, it did not work out that way, did it?  We’re told that the people there were amazed by Jesus, but not in a good way.  They were resentful of him.  This Jesus was not the same person they had known.  He’d changed.  And the people of Nazareth did not like this new Jesus.  They were saying, what’s up with all this?  Here he is, up in the synagogue, teaching and working miracles like he’s really hot stuff or something.  Who does this Jesus think he is, anyway?  He’s just an ordinary person like we are.  What does he think, that he’s better than the rest of us now?  We’re told that the people of Nazareth were actually offended at Jesus teaching in the synagogue.

            When we think about the sacrifice Jesus made for us, we usually think of his death on the cross.  And we should think about that.  That was incredibly important, for a lot of reasons.  But that was not the only sacrifice Jesus made for us.  Jesus made lots of other sacrifices for us, too.

           One of them is simply being willing to come to earth at all.  I mean, think about it.  Jesus was in heaven.  The Divine Son.  God the Son.  In heaven with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.  The trinity.  The three in one.  All of them together fully God and each of them fully God.  And we don’t know quite how that works, but just think about how awesome that would be for Jesus in heaven.

            And Jesus willingly gives that up.  He separates himself from the other two members of the holy trinity.  That’d be like giving up a part of yourself.  Can you even imagine that?  I don’t think I can.  All the time he was on earth he’d have felt incomplete, like a part of him was missing.  

That was a tremendous sacrifice Jesus made.  It must have been a really terrible feeling for him, to feel incomplete and separate in that way.  Maybe that’s why Jesus would sometimes go off by himself to pray.  Maybe, when he did that, he could get some measure of connection with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and not feel so incomplete, at least for a while.

            And then, there was the sacrifice Jesus made by his ministry on earth.  Again, he had lived in Nazareth his whole life.  He had family there.  He had friends there, old friends who’d known him all his life.  He had a business there.  He had a home there.  He was living in the normal routines and rhythms of life that we all live in.

            When Jesus started his earthly ministry, he gave all that up.  He left his family behind.  He left his old friends behind.  He left his carpentry business behind.  He left his home behind.  He left behind his entire way of life, the way of life he’d been living ever since he was little.  Think about what that would be like, to leave behind the only life you’d ever known like that.

            And think of what he left it behind for.  A life of wandering.  No stability.  No home life.  No place to even call home.  As Jesus says, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  A life of people constantly demanding things from him.  A life of people constantly criticizing him, trying to tell him what to do.  A life of people trying to trick him and trap him.  A life in which no one, not even his closest associates, really understood him or what he was trying to do.  That’s a tremendous sacrifice that Jesus made, when you think about it.  Jesus did not just sacrifice his life when he died on the cross.  Jesus sacrificed his entire earthly life when he started his ministry.

            Jesus knew what he was doing, of course.  When Jesus left home to start his ministry, he knew what that meant.  He knew it was what he had come to earth to do.  Jesus knew he had not come to earth to live a quiet life as a carpenter in Nazareth.  He knew he was the Savior, the Divine Son of God.  He knew what he needed to do, and he knew what was going to happen to him as a result.  Maybe not every last detail--we don’t know that--but he knew enough.  He knew everything he was giving up, both during his life and in his death.  But still, it was a sacrifice.  And Jesus made that sacrifice.  He made it for us.

            Why do you suppose, after a year and a half on the road, Jesus came home?  We’re not told.  Maybe Jesus never said.  Maybe the disciples themselves did not know.  It could be that he wanted to check on Mary and his earthly siblings, to see how they were doing.  It could be that he just wanted to rest and get away from things for a while.  It could be all kinds of reasons.

           But I wonder if, while Jesus was there, it ever crossed his mind to wonder what his life would have been like if he’d never left.  We don’t know that he did, but again, while he was on earth Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine.  A lot of us, as humans, look at our lives and wonder about what would’ve happened if we’d done things differently.  Maybe Jesus did, too.

            Maybe the human Jesus wondered, what would’ve happened if I’d just kept working in the carpenter shop?  He could’ve had a quiet, normal life.  Maybe he’d even have gotten married and raised a family.  Things would’ve been so much easier.  They’d have been so much simpler.  A nice house to come home to.  People who cared about him.  No one constantly trying to trick him or trap him or come up with a reason to throw him in prison.  There could have been a part of the human Jesus that thought that all sounded pretty good.

            But of course, Jesus did leave home, and he did start his ministry.  Because Jesus knew he was the divine Son of God.  And he knew that he had come to earth for specific reasons.  To teach us.  To heal us.  To provide an example for us.  To die, so that our sins could be forgiven.  Jesus knew that was why he had come to earth.  And he knew that he needed to do what he had been put on earth to do.  But still, he had to make that choice.  And he had to make the sacrifices necessary to do what he had been put on earth to do.

            But here’s the thing.  Jesus was not the only person who was put on earth for specific reasons.  You know who else was?  You.  And me.  Each one of us was put on earth for specific reasons.  No, none of us is the divine Son of God.  But each of us was put here to do certain things.  We’re put here to love God.  We’re put here to serve God.  We’re put here to love each other and serve each other.  We’re put here to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

And there will be times when doing those things complicates our life, just as it complicated Jesus’ life.  And there may be times when we’d rather not do them.  There may be times when we realize how much easier our lives would be, how much simpler our lives would be, if we did not do what God put us here to do.  And there are going to be times when, if we’re going to do what God put us here to do, we’re going to have to give some things up.  We’re going to need to make some sacrifices.  If we’re going to do the things God put us here to do, we’re not always going to be able to do the things we want to do.

And then we’re going to have to make a choice, just as Jesus had to make a choice.  Are we going to do what God put us on earth to do?  Are we going to love God and serve God with everything we do?  Are we going to love each other and serve each other at all times?  Are we going to go out and make disciples of Jesus Christ?  And are we going to do those things even when doing them means we have to give some things up and make some sacrifices, sacrifices that we might not really want to make?  Are we willing to give up a quiet, normal life, if that’s what’s necessary to do what God put us here to do?

Jesus was willing to give up his entire earthly life so that he could do what he was put on earth to do.  Are you and I willing to do the same?

Who Are You, Lord?

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, May 5, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Acts 9:1-20.

            Imagine that you’re Saul.  You’re an up-and-coming young Pharisee.  You’re well-educated and intelligent.  The higher-ups have their eye on you.  They’re grooming you for big things, maybe even a seat on the Sanhedrin, the ruling council.  Your future is looking bright.

            There’s this group of people you’re aware of.  They call themselves Christians.  You hate them.  It’s nothing personal, but you’re full of zeal for the Lord.  You want God’s rules to be followed, the way Moses and all the people who’ve come after him say they should be followed.  And for sure, you don’t want Jewish people to worship anyone but the one true God.

            And that’s the problem.  See, these “Christians” claim to be worshiping God, but in fact they worship this guy called “Jesus”.  They say this Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior.  Well, you know that’s a lot of nonsense.  That Jesus guy was a criminal.  After all, he was crucified, wasn’t he?  That’s something that only happens to the worst of the worst.  And besides, it was the Sanhedrin that turned Jesus over to the Roman government to be killed.  You know they would not have treated Jesus like a criminal if it was not true. 

            But these Christians just won’t go away.  They keep going all over the area, getting people stirred up, causing trouble.  So, you decide you’ve got to do something about it.  You go to the Jewish authorities and ask for permission to arrest these Christians.  And they give it to you.  So you go out and get to work, determined to capture all these Christians and send them back to Jerusalem to be prosecuted.

            So that’s what you’re doing one day--you’re going to Damascus to capture Christians.  And out of the blue, a light flashes from heaven.  You fall to the ground--in stunned amazement, in shock, in awe.  You hear a voice from heaven that says, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

            You try to respond, but nothing comes out.  All kinds of thoughts are going through your mind.  “What’s going on?  Is that really the voice of the Lord?  What does He mean, why are you persecuting me?  I’m not persecuting the Lord.  I’m going after these blasphemers, these “Christians”, these people who are causing trouble.  I love the Lord.  I’m serving the Lord.  Why is the Lord saying I’m persecuting Him?”

You try to defend yourself.  You try to explain yourself.  But you cannot do it.  You stutter around, trying to say something.  And then, you say the only thing you can think of to say, “Who are you, Lord?”

            Think of how far Saul’s world had to have been turned upside down, for him to ask that question.  Because he thought he knew exactly who the Lord was.  In fact, he had no doubt about it.  Saul was absolutely certain that he knew everything he needed to know about the Lord.  He’d learned from the best rabbis around, and he was a good student.  Saul knew what God had told the prophets.  He knew all the rules and regulations that had been handed down by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.  He knew what you were supposed to do to follow God and serve God.  He knew what you were not supposed to do, too.  Anything and everything there was to know about God, Saul knew it.

            And now in a flash--literally in a flash--Saul found out that everything he thought he knew was wrong.  Everything.  He thought he knew so much, and now he finds out he knows nothing.  Saul thought he had been serving God, and now he finds out he’s been persecuting God.  And he is completely and totally at a loss.  He suddenly realizes that he has absolutely no idea who God is or what God wants.  He has no idea who God is at all.

            Have you ever been in that situation?  Not that exact situation, probably, but have you ever been in a situation where you thought you knew how things were supposed to go, you thought you knew what was supposed to happen, you thought you knew what God wanted you to do, and all of a sudden you realized that none of it was right?  Have you ever been in a situation where you were convinced, that you were confident that you knew what God’s will was, and you tried to follow it, and then you found out that what you thought was God’s will was not God’s will at all?

            I think at least some of us probably have.  Because most of us here have had times when things went against us.  Times when we were in trouble through no fault of our own.  Times when things went against us and we did not understand why.  And we prayed, and we asked God for help, and--God did not help.  Or at least, we believed that God was not helping.  And it turned our world upside down.  We thought we knew who God was and what God wanted, and we found out that all the things we thought we knew were wrong.  And were completely and totally at a loss.  Maybe we even feel, as Saul did, that we have no idea who God even is any more.

            That’s the time when we find out about ourselves and about our faith.  When God turns out not to be who we thought God was--when God turns out not to be who we want God to be--what do we do?  How do we react?  Are we willing even to accept that God might not be who we thought God was?  Can we be open to learning who God really is, and learning how we can truly serve God and follow God?  Are we willing to ask, as Saul did, “Who are you, Lord?”  Or do we turn away from God, deciding that if God is not who we think God should be then God is not worth worshiping?

            Saul was willing to learn.  He asked the question, “Who are you, Lord?”  And when Jesus told him, he listened.  Jesus told Saul to go to Damascus, and there he’d be told what to do.  And he did it.  He had to be led by others, because he could not see, but he did it.  He went to Damascus and went on a holy fast, not eating or drinking for three days while he waited for the Lord to tell him what to do.  And of course, his eyes were eventually opened, he began to preach, and he went on to become one of the greatest evangelists and religious leaders in history.

            What would’ve happened if he had not?  Suppose Saul had said, “I don’t believe this.  I know who God is.  I know who that Jesus was.  This has to be a trick.  Maybe it’s even Satan.  I don’t know what it is, but I know it cannot be God, and I’m not listening.”  What would’ve happened then?  Would he have stayed blind?  Would the Lord have done something else, something more, to convince Saul?  Would the Lord have found someone else to take Saul’s place?  What would’ve happened?

            We’ll never know.  We’ll never know, if Saul had missed this chance, whether he’d have gotten another one.  Maybe he would’ve, but maybe not.  If Saul had said no, we might never have heard of him.  In fact, for all we know, maybe Saul was not the Lord’s first choice.  Maybe the Lord contacted some other people, and they said no, and Saul was the next one on the list.  Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing in the Bible that says that.  It’s just speculation on my part.  But it’s at least possible.

            We all have an idea of who God is.  None of our ideas is completely right, because God is greater and bigger and awesomer than anything we can even begin to imagine.  I mean, this is the God who can be everywhere and every time at once.  This is the God who knows everything that each person does, who knows every word each of us says, who knows every thought each of us thinks.  This is the God who knows what’s going to happen a hundred, a thousand, a million years in the future if the world is going to last that long.  None of us can understand that God.  It’s not possible for us, as mere human beings to do that.

            That means that, to one degree or another, each of us has some ideas about God that are wrong.  As we go through our lives, day after day, we often don’t notice that or think about it.  But then, something happens--sometimes very suddenly--and we realize it.  We realize that some of our ideas about God are wrong.  What do we do then?  Are we open to learning more about God?  Are we willing to say, as Saul did, “Who are you, Lord?”  And are we willing to listen and learn?

            As certain as Saul had been, when he found out he was wrong, he was open to learning.  He really did want to follow God and to serve God.  He had been trying to do that--he just was going about it in the wrong way.  And when he found that out, he was open to finding out what God wanted him to do and doing it the right way.  And God used Saul, later called Paul, to do some amazing, incredible things.

            I think everyone here wants to follow God and to serve God, too.  And we’ve been trying to do that.  And I’m not saying everything we do is wrong--we do a lot of things right.  But we don’t do everything right--after all, we’re not perfect people, and this is not a perfect church.  So the question is, are we open to finding out what God wants us to do and doing it the right way?  Because if we are, God will use us, and will use this church, to do some amazing, incredible things, too.

God-made

This is the message given at the Gettysburg United Methodist church Sunday evening, April 28, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 118:5-29.

             One of the traditional American values is self-reliance.  We’re told we need to do things for ourselves, to stand on our own two feet.  We need to take care of ourselves, look out for number one.  One of the heroes of American culture is the self-made man.

            And that’s fine, up to a point.  But only up to a point.  Because it’s really easy for that attitude of taking care of ourselves, standing on our own--it’s really easy for that to become prideful.  And from there, it’s a pretty short step to arrogance.  Because the truth is that there’s no such thing as a self-made man, or a self-made woman for that matter.  The truth is that any abilities we have, and any talents we have, come from God.  And as we try to develop those talents and abilities, we need to develop them the way God wants us to.  We need to develop them in a way that serves God and honors God.  Our goal should not be to be a self-made person.  Our goal should be to be a God-made person.

            It strikes me that the person who wrote Psalm 118 may have tried to be a self-made individual.  He was standing on his own two feet, doing things for himself.  And for a while, it probably worked out okay.  And then, he gets into trouble.  And what does he do?  Well, he does what so many of us do when we get into trouble.  He comes running back to God.

            It starts out, “When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord”.  No matter how good we think we are, no matter how self-reliant we try to be, that time is always going to come when we’re hard pressed.  That time when things start to fall apart, when everything is just too much for us to handle.  That time when those things we did that used to work so well won’t work any more.  That time when, by bad luck or circumstances or our own mistakes or some combination of all those things, everything collapses around us and we have nowhere else to turn.  And so, in desperation, we turn to God.

            But you know what’s so cool about this?  Even though, so many times, we wait until we’re desperate to turn to God, God never holds that against us.  God still is there for us.  God will still help us and guide us.  In fact, sometimes, God will just outright rescue us.  God will show us the way through the situation.  Not take us out of it, probably, but help us cope with and deal with it and get through it.

            That’s what God does for the author of the psalm.  Look at what he says:  “The Lord is with me.”  Not “The Lord saved me”.  Not “The Lord helped me escape.”  Just “The Lord is with me.”  And because the Lord is with him, he knows he does not have to be afraid.  He knows God will help him.  As long as God is with him, things are going to go the way they’re supposed to go.  As long as God is with him, things will work out.  He does not necessarily know how.  But he knows they will.  And that’s all he needs to know.

            And then, look at the next two verses.  “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans.  It is better to take refuge in the Lord that to trust in princes.”

            How would you know that?  How would you know that it’s better to trust God than humans or princes?  Well, the only way you’d really know that is if you’d tried it, right?  The author of this psalm had probably tried trusting humans.  He’d probably tried trusting princes.  And they’d all let him down.  The only one he could really trust was God.

            Have you ever done that?  Have you tried putting your trust in humans, or in princes, rather than in God?  I don’t know, but I know a lot of people do.  How many times, when there’s a problem--or at least when we think there’s a problem--do we look to humans rather than to God?  We look to the government, we look to corporations, we look to organizations.  We look to a doctor or a lawyer of a banker.  We look to our friends and our family.  We look everywhere but to God.

            It’s not necessarily wrong to look to some of those other people or organizations.  In fact, sometimes God chooses to work through people like that.  I’m not saying we should just sit back and do nothing.  But human beings are fallible.  Even if they’re doing their best, they’re going to let us down sometimes.  Anything created by human beings is imperfect.  The only one who is perfect is God.  And that’s who we should turn to:  God.

            And when the author of the psalm turns to God, what happens?  God does not let him down.  God helps him.  He says, I will not die, but live!  Everything was going against him, but when he turned to God, God gave him the confidence to know that he would not just survive what was going on, he would triumph over it.

            And then, here comes what I think is the key to the whole thing.  Once he gets that confidence, and when in fact he does triumph over his troubles, what does he do?  He feels gratitude to God.  He gives the credit to God and gives thanks to God.  He does not say “I did this.”  He says, “God did this.”  “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!...I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation...The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes...The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine on us.”

            Now, maybe it seems obvious that in a situation like this we should give the credit to God.  After all, look what happened.  We were in trouble, we prayed to God, and God saw us through it and helped us triumph over it.  Of course we should thank God for that.

            And of course we should.  But it seems to me there are a lot of times we don’t.  There are times I don’t.  Have you ever done this?  You get into trouble, into a tight spot, and you see no way out of it.  And so you pray, and you pray, and you ask God to save you.  And God does.  And almost immediately you go, “Oh, well, that’s all right then.”   And you move on.

            Maybe you’ve never done that, I don’t know.  But I know I have.  Sometimes, later--maybe days later--I’ll realize that I forgot to thank God for what happened.  And then I do give thanks, and I feel kind of embarrassed that I did not thank God right away.  Sometimes I even ask God for forgiveness for not thanking Him right away.  But then, the next time, it seems like I do the same thing again.

            Why do I do that?  Well, I think it gets back to what we talked about at the start of this message.  I want to be self-reliant.  When I get out of trouble, I want to think it was me that got me out of it.  That I did not need any help from anybody.  I mean, I sure willing to ask for the help when I’m in trouble, but after I get out of it I want to pretend I did it all myself.  Me.  No one else.  I’m still trying to be that self-made man, rather than trying to be a God-made man.

            It’s arrogance, when you come right down to it.  It’s the sin of arrogance.  Thinking we don’t need God.  Thinking we can do it all ourselves.  Wanting to do it all ourselves.  Trying to convince ourselves that we’ve done it all ourselves.  Arrogance.

            The author of the psalm may have felt that in the beginning.  But not by the end.  By the end of the psalm, he is humbling himself before God.  In fact, by the end of the psalm, he says this:  “You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you.  Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.”

            When we get into trouble, we can always turn to God.  God will always be there for us.  But the thing is, we don’t have to wait until we get into trouble to turn to God.  We can turn to God at any time.  We can turn to God all the time.  When things are good, when things are bad, when things are just going normally.  We don’t need to be self-reliant, self-made people who only turn to God when we get desperate.  We can be God-reliant, God-made people all the time.

            So let’s put aside our arrogance.  Let’s put aside our pride.  Let’s humble ourselves before God.  Let’s acknowledge that power and love of God.  Let’s praise God and exalt God.  Let’s give thanks to God.  Because God is, indeed, good, and God’s love truly does endure forever.

Stress Relief

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, April 28, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Acts 5:27-42.

            The first United Methodist appointment Wanda and I had was to the McCook Lake United Methodist church in North Sioux City, now known as the ARK United Methodist church.  Now, that church had quite a history.  It had started out as a small, mission church.  Then Gateway Computers came into North Sioux City.  The town boomed, and the church boomed right along with it.  They were averaging over two hundred people in worship on Sunday morning, and it looked like that would grow to more.  The church’s future looked incredibly bright.

            Then, Gateway ran into trouble.  And they pulled out of North Sioux City.  And the town faltered, and the church faltered right along with it.  The number of people in worship plummeted.  When Wanda and I got to North Sioux City this church, which had been averaging more than two hundred people in worship, was down to about twenty-five.  And when we got there, we were told that we had three years to get the church turned around or it would be closed.  In fact, at the first church meeting we had after we got there, we were told that we were going to have to leave our building in two months and find another place to worship.  That’s why the picture of the school is up there--that’s ultimately where we held worship services for most of the three years Wanda and I were there.

            So anyway, there we were.  Our first United Methodist appointment.  Not really knowing what we’re doing anyway, a couple of small town people now living in the suburb of what, for this area at least, is a fairly good-sized city, and told to find a way to get this church turned around in three years or it would be closed.  Without even having a building to have worship services in.  Talk about a stressful situation!

            Well, as you might guess, we prayed a lot.  And as I was praying one day, this thought struck me.  If God wants this church to be here, then it’ll be here no matter what I do, because I’m not stronger than God.  And if God does not want this church to be here, then it won’t be here no matter what I do, because I’m not stronger than God.  Now, that does not mean that I decided to sit back and do nothing.  What it means is that I decided to do my best to follow God and to serve God, and then I would see what God decided to do with that.  If God decided to bless it, the church would grow.  If not, then it would not.  It was not my job to determine the results.  It was God’s job to do that, and I would trust God to make the result come out the way it was supposed to.  All my job was, was simply to be faithful to God and to do the best I could.

            When I realized that, it took a lot of stress out of my life.  Wanda and I still worked hard.  But we knew that if we stayed faithful to God and did the best we could, the result did not matter.  In we stayed faithful to God, we would have succeeded, no matter what the actual result might be.

            We talked last we about how, after Jesus died, at first the disciples did not know what they were supposed to do.  But Jesus told them to go and spread the gospel, to make disciples of all nations.  And that’s what they started doing.

            The disciples had no guarantee of what was going to happen when they went out to spread Jesus’ message.  I’m sure they had hopes.  I’m sure they had dreams.  I’m sure they were hoping that they would make hundreds, thousands of converts.  They were probably dreaming of a day when everyone they talked to would believe in Jesus and be saved.

            But at the same time, they’d been with Jesus for three years.  They saw what happened when Jesus spread the gospel message.  There were some people who believed, but there were some people who did not.  There were people who rejected Jesus’ message immediately.  There were others who followed for a while, and then lost interest.  And of course, they saw what ultimately happened to Jesus--he was killed on a cross.  If that could happen to Jesus himself, the disciples surely knew that it might happen to them, too.  That’s a pretty stressful situation, too!

            The disciples did not know how things would go when they started to spread the gospel message.  But they realized that they did not need to know.  Jesus had told them to go and spread the gospel and make disciples of all nations.  So, they decided to do the best they could to do that.  They would do their best to follow God and to serve God, and then see what God would do with that.  If God decided to bless their work, then the gospel message would be spread.  If not, then it would not.  The disciples knew that it was not their job to determine the results.  It was God’s job to do that, and they trusted that God would make the result come out the way it was supposed to.  Their job was simply to be faithful to the task Jesus had given them and to do the best they could.  If they did that, they would have succeeded, no matter what the results might be.  And I suspect that knowing that took a lot of their stress away, too.

            Well, the result, at least at the time of our Bible reading for today, is that the disciples got hauled up before the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish ruling authority.  The Sanhedrin basically said, hey, we told you to stop telling people about Jesus.  And yet, here you are, going around talking about nothing else.  What do you think you’re doing?

            And the disciples basically say, you can tell us whatever you want, but we have to do what God told us to do.  God told us to spread this message.  Yes, we know you might try to stop us, but we cannot control what you do.  We can only control what we do, and what we’re going to do is follow God.  So you do whatever you’re going to do.

            We tend to kind of gloss over that, but think of the faith that takes.  I mean, the Sanhedrin could’ve had them put in prison for life, and there would’ve been nothing they could’ve done about it.  And back then, prison was a really bad place to be.  Not that it’s a great place now, but prisons were awful back then.  Just the unsanitary conditions might kill you.  And yet, here the disciples are, standing up before the Sanhedrin and saying, do whatever you want.  We don’t care.  We’re going to follow God no matter what you do to us.  Again, they were going to be faithful to God and trust that God would make things come out the way they were supposed to.

            Well, when the disciples said that, the Pharisees were up in arms.  They were furious.  Some of them wanted to kill Peter and the others, despite the fact that they really did not have the power to impose the death penalty.  And then, a Pharisee named Gamaliel speaks.  And Gamaliel takes a similar attitude to what the one I took in North Sioux City.  He said to the others, look, if God is not behind what these guys are doing, we don’t have to do anything.  What they’re doing will fail, because they are not stronger than God.  But if God is behind what these guys are doing, then nothing we do is going to stop them, because guess what, guys.  We’re not stronger than God, either.  So you know what?  We don’t have to take on the stress of defending God.  God can defend Himself.  So let these people go and wait to see what God decides to do.

            It seems to me that’s a pretty good attitude to take toward all aspects of our lives.  In fact, it seems to me that it would make a lot of our lives a lot less stressful, too.  Whatever our situation, whether we’re at work, or at home, or wherever.  Do the best we can.  Do the best we can to love God, to serve God, and to be faithful to God.  And realize that if we do that, we’re not responsible for the result.  God is.  And we can trust God to make that result be the way it’s supposed to be.  That may not be the way we wanted it to be, but it will be the way it’s supposed to be.  It’s not our job to get a result.  It’s our job to be faithful to God and do the best we can to serve God and show love to God.  If we do that, then in God’s eyes, we’ll have succeeded, no matter what the result might be.

            It’s not always easy to give control of the results to God.  We tend to want to control the results ourselves.  And maybe sometimes we can.  But my experience has been that when I try too hard to control the results, what I end up doing is trying to force things to go my way, and trying to force people to do what I want them to do.  And that does not work very often.  And when you think about it, you can see why.  Even God does not force us to do things the way God wants us to.  If God does not force people to do things, why would I think I can do it and make it work?  But if we just do our best and leave the results to God, then we don’t feel a need to force anything.  We can relax, let go of the stress, and let God take care of things.

            God is always stronger than we are.  If God wants things to happen in a certain way, they will happen that way, no matter what you and I do.  If God does not want things to happen in a certain way, then they won’t happen that way, no matter what you and I do.  So let’s do the best we can to serve God, to follow God, and to love God.  And let’s trust God to take it from there.  It’ll take a lot of stress out of our lives.  And if we stay faithful to God, then in God’s eyes we will have succeeded, no matter what the results on earth might be.