Jesus or the World

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

A High Standard of Love

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

            Have you ever washed someone’s feet?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Keeping the Purpose in Mind

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Loving Each Other

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Intended Consequences

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, February 28, 2021.  The Bible verses used are John 12:20-36.

            Are you familiar with the Law of Unintended Consequences?  You probably are.  Even if you were not aware that it was called that, you’ve probably seen it in operation.  Basically, the Law of Unintended Consequences says that whenever we make a decision or take an action, that decision or action will have consequences that we never intended.  And the more complex the situation is about which were making that decision or taking that action, the larger the unintended consequences are going to be.

            Now, of course, the Law of Unintended Consequences is a human thing.  For God, there are never any unintended consequences.  When God acts, God knows exactly what all of the consequences will be.  And we can see that in the life and death of Jesus.  

            In our reading for tonight, Jesus talks about his death.  He knows that he’s going to be betrayed.  The religious authorities are going to arrest him.  He’s going to be beaten and tortured.  He’s going to be sentenced to death.  And that sentence is going to be carried out.

            But listen to what Jesus has to say about that.  “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

            The religious leaders--the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the teachers of the law, all the rest--thought that the entire Christian movement rested on the life of Jesus.  And so, they assumed that once Jesus was out of the way, the movement would collapse.  If they could just get rid of Jesus, their problems would be over.

            But Jesus knew that his death would not be the end of the Christian movement.  It would just be the beginning.  Obviously, part of the reason is that Jesus is who he is--the divine Son of God.  But there were other, practical reasons why this was going to come about, too.

            Jesus knew that as long as he was there, the disciples, and everyone else, would look to him to be the leader.  And that was appropriate, of course.  Jesus was the leader.  But the thing is, as long as Jesus was there, the disciples would never take any initiative on their own.  They would always wait for Jesus to tell them what to do and where to go.  They would stick with Jesus, and follow Jesus.  But everything would depend on Jesus.  It would all revolve around him.  He would be the single seed that he talked about.

            But then, the authorities had Jesus killed.  And instead of the Christian movement dying with him, it was born!  In dying, Jesus produced many seeds!  And he still is, really.  But the disciples took over from Jesus.  They carried his ministry forward.  And because there were more of them, once they went off separately they could cover far more ground than Jesus ever could while he was on earth.  The disciples, and the others who heard about Jesus from them, spread the gospel all over the world.

            And the disciples going off separately was an unintended consequence of what the religious leaders did, too.  We did not read this tonight, but at first, the disciples stayed together.  They stayed around Jerusalem.  But then, the authorities started coming after them, threatening them with persecution and arrest.  And so, the disciples scattered.  They scattered for their own safety, but they took the gospel of Jesus Christ with them wherever they went.  And the gospel spread, and spread, and spread, all over the world.

            The religious authorities thought they could stop Christianity by killing Christ.  Instead, they made it grow.  The religious authorities thought they could stop the disciples from spreading Christianity by forcing them out of Jerusalem.  Instead, their actions made Christianity reach people all over the known world.

            Those were all unintended consequences for the religious authorities.  But they were all intended consequences for God.  And Jesus, by his words, shows that he knew it would happen.  

            But it’s not just that these things happened.  They happened to glorify God.  That’s referenced three times in Jesus’ statement.  He starts out by saying “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  Later he says, “Father, glorify your name.”  And a voice comes from heaven, saying “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

            I want you to think about this.  This struck me as such an awesome thing for God to have done.  You know, we think of the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, and the rest, as the bad guys in the story of Jesus.  And they are, in a lot of ways.  But they were not trying to be the bad guys.  They thought they were doing what God wanted them to do.  They wanted God’s name to be glorified.

            And, as a result of their actions, it was.  Talk about an unintended consequence!  The actions of the Pharisees and the Sadducees resulted in God’s name being glorified, but in a way that never would have occurred to them.  A way they never would’ve dreamed of.  A way that never would have entered their thoughts in any way, shape or form.  The Pharisees and Sadducees had everything completely wrong, and yet God used what they did to bring about what they actually wanted--God’s name being glorified.  That’s a pretty amazing thing for God to do, don’t you think?

            I sometimes mention Romans Chapter Eight, Verse Twenty-eight, that God can use all things for the good of those who love Him.  But you know, when you think about it, when the Apostle Paul wrote that, he was really kind of underselling it.  It’s not just that God can use all things for the good of those who love Him.  God can use all things to bring about His purposes.  God can use all things to glorify His name.  God can take the actions of people whose goal is to stop Christianity, to shut it down, to do away with it, and use those actions to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and glorify the name of God.  It’s incredible.

            And it should give us a lot of hope.  You know, we look at the world, and we see a lot of things going wrong.  It’s not just the corona virus, although that’s obvious a major one.  It’s violence.  It’s lack of trust.  It’s economic problems.  It’s isolation and depression.  It’s failed relationships.  It’s loneliness.  We could go on and on about the problems of the world.

            And it seems like there are a lot of people opposed to Christianity right now, too.  We don’t feel that as much here, because of where we live, but we’d be foolish to think we’re immune from it.  Churches are forced to close.  Pastors are threatened with jail for continuing to preach to live audiences.  Things that have been basic tenets of Christianity for centuries are now called “offensive” and are censored.  Christians often censor themselves, and don’t want to talk about their faith, because they don’t want to upset anyone.  And in other countries it’s even worse.  There are places where people are literally killed for the Christian faith.

            When we think about these things, we can get depressed.  We wonder what the future holds.  But we don’t have to be depressed.  As the old hymn says, we may not know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future.  We know that it’s all in God’s hands.  We know that God remains in control.  God always has been in control, and God always will be in control.  And God is going to work all these things to bring about God’s purposes.

Anyone who thinks they can stop Christianity is doomed to failure.  They are as doomed to failure as the Pharisees and the Sadducees were when they killed Jesus.  They may think they’re winning.  Everyone around may think they’re winning, too.  But they’re not.  They are going to see the Law of Unintended Consequences take effect, big time.  Or, another way to put it is that they are going to see the Law of God’s Intended Consequences take effect, big time. 

Christianity cannot be killed, just as Jesus could not be killed.  And anyone who tries is only going to see their actions result in Christianity growing all the more.  And they’re going to see God’s name glorified.  God has glorified His name, and He will glorify it again.

So, no matter what you see around you, do not give up hope.  Do not lose faith.  Know that God is still here.  God sees everything that’s happening.  And God is going to use it all.  God is using it all now, in ways that we do not know and cannot see.  We talk about God being all-powerful, and of course that’s true, but even though we say it I don’t know if we actually realize how true that statement is.  Even when we think of all the amazing things God has done, I don’t think we come anywhere close to realizing the incredible, awesome power God has.  We also don’t come anywhere close to realizing the incredible, awesome love God has for us, that God would use God’s power for our good.

God cannot be stopped.  God cannot even be slowed down.  Everything that’s happening now is being used by God.  The single seed is falling into the ground.  It is going to produce more seeds that we can ever imagine.  God’s name will be glorified.  That may be an unintended consequence of what humans do.  But it’s a consequence that’s fully intended by God.

 

That We May See

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, February 28, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Mark 10:46-52.

            Most of us are basically what would be commonly thought of as good people.  We do our best.  We care about people.  We try to do what we can for them.  When we see someone who needs help, we try to give it to them.

            But the tricky bit about that is that phrase “when we see someone”.  Because too often, we don’t.  A lot of the time, we kind of go through life with blinders on.  We don’t see the people around us who need help, and so we don’t help them.  It’s not that we don’t want to help them.  It’s just that we did not see them.  We did not notice them.

            And that’s not because we’re intentionally being mean or selfish or anything.  It’s just that, well, we get involved in our own stuff.  Our work takes our time.  Our families take our time.  If we’re involved in the community, or in the church, that takes our time.  And then, too, we’ve all got concerns in our lives.  We’ve all got worries.  We’ve all got problems.  And so, it’s really easy for us to get completely wrapped up in all those things going on in our own lives.  Again, not because we want to be selfish--it can happen to us without us even realizing it.  And because we don’t realize it, we can walk right past someone who needs help, and not even see them.

            In our Bible reading for today, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem.  As we noted last week, this is the last trip of Jesus’ life.  He knows that when he gets to Jerusalem, Judas is going to betray him to the authorities.  He’s going to be arrested, he’s going to be beaten, and he’s going to be killed.

            Have you ever thought about what that was like for Jesus?  To walk along, knowing that every step he takes brings him closer to the end of his life on earth?  I would think there must have been a part of him that wanted to turn around, wanted to go back to Nazareth, or just go somewhere else, anywhere else.  Yes, Jesus knew this was how things were supposed to go.  He knew it was part of his destiny on earth to be crucified.  But still, Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine.  There had to be a part of him that did not want to go through with this.

            And you know, he could’ve justified it to himself.  He could’ve said, you know, if I just put this off a while, think of all the good I could do.  Think of all the people I could heal.  Think of all the people I could preach the good news to.  There’s a lot more I could do if I did not go to Jerusalem right now.  I’ll still do it--I know I’m supposed to die for the sins of human beings--but not just now.  Maybe next year.  Or the year after.  But not yet.  Not now.

            Jesus has all this to deal with as he’s walking along, walking toward Jerusalem.  If there was ever someone who had an excuse to not notice the needs of others, to get wrapped up in his own stuff, it would be Jesus at this point.  And yet, Jesus did not do that.  He did not walk along with blinders on.  Jesus saw the needs of others.  And he took the time to help them.

            Jesus is leaving a town called Jericho.  There’s a large crowd around him.  And any time there’s a large crowd, there’s lots of noise, lots of confusion.  But then, above the noise of the crowd, there’s a voice.  It’s a voice so loud that everyone hears it.  A man cries out, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!”

            Everyone’s kind of shocked.  The people around him try to shush him, but he pays no attention.  He cries out all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

            It would’ve been so easy for Jesus to just keep walking along.  Again, he was walking toward his death.  He’d already healed hundreds of people, probably thousands of people.  Maybe even tens of thousands of people, we don’t know.  He’d been there and done that.  Does he really have to deal with this guy now, when he’s in the last week of his life on earth, walking toward his death?  What was in it for Jesus, for him to do that?  Can this guy not just leave him alone?

            But Jesus did not think that way.  You or I might have, but Jesus did not.  Jesus stopped.  And he said of the man, whose name was Bartimaeus, “Call him.”

            They do.  And Bartimaeus comes to Jesus as fast as he can.  He even throws aside his cloak, which to a blind beggar might have been the most important thing he owned.  We don’t know if people had to lead him to Jesus, if he followed the voice, or what, but somehow Bartimaeus makes his way to Jesus.  And Jesus says, “What do you want me to do for you?”

            It seems like, when people came to Jesus to be healed, Jesus asked that question a lot.  I wonder why.  I mean, it seems obvious, right?  The guy’s blind.  He knows Jesus has healing powers.  What do you think he wants, tickets to the coliseum?  Of course, he wants to be healed.  He wants to see.  But for whatever reason, Jesus makes him say it.

            This is kind of an aside, but that’s a lesson for us, too.  Sometimes we wonder why, in our prayers, we need to tell God what’s going on and what we want.  After all, He’s God, right?  God knows everything.  God knows everything about us.  God knows everything we’re going through.  Why should we have to tell Him?  

            I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s because putting it into words clarifies things in our own minds.  Maybe God wants us to say it to Him so that we’ll know, when things get better, that it was God who did it.  There may be all kinds of reasons why God wants us to tell Him these things.  But a lot of times God does, just as Jesus wanted the people he healed to put into words what they wanted.

            So of course, Bartimaeus says he wants to see.  And Jesus gives him his sight, telling him, as he often did, “Your faith has healed you.”  And Bartimaeus then started following Jesus on the road to Jerusalem.

            Jesus had so much on his mind.  He had so much going on.  It would’ve been so easy for Jesus to just keep walking, to just ignore this blind beggar, to pretend he hadn’t even heard him over the buzz of the crowd.  No one would’ve thought less of him.  No one probably would’ve thought anything.  This story would never have appeared in the Bible.  No one would’ve ever heard of Bartimaeus.  No one would’ve known anything about it.

            But Jesus did not have blinders on.  He did not let his own stuff, his own worries, his own concerns, keep him from helping someone who needed him.  Jesus did not just walk past someone who needed help.  Jesus stopped, and Jesus helped him.

            There are a lot of times when life is not easy.  Now, I’m not saying we should sit around saying “poor little me”.  You and I have a lot advantages that many people in the world don’t.  Just living in the United States of America is a huge advantage.  We all have a place to sleep and food to eat and clothes to wear, and those are huge advantages.

            But even saying that, there are a lot of times when life is not easy.  We may not be worried about basic survival--although I don’t know that about everyone for sure--but we have other worries, other concerns.  There are plenty of people in our churches, and in our communities, who have health problems, or financial problems, or relationship problems, or problems at their jobs, or any number of other things.  I don’t know anyone who can say their life is easy, that they have nothing to worry about, that everything is lollipops and rainbows.  We all have plenty of stuff going on in our lives, and they can feel overwhelming to us.  Life is not easy.

            But what is easy, and happens far too often, is that we let that stuff take over our lives.  And I don’t mean this as an accusation.  I do it as much as anyone.  But when our own worries, our own concerns, take over our lives, that’s when we put the blinders on.  We probably don’t even realize that we’ve done it, but we do it.  And we miss chances to help people, because we simply don’t see them and don’t see their needs.

            This is the time of Lent.  This is the time we repent of our sins, ask for forgiveness, and ask God to change our lives.  Let’s ask God to change our lives in this way.  Let’s ask God to take off our blinders.  Let’s ask God to help us see the needs of the people around us, so we can do whatever we can to help them.

            We really want to be good people.  We really do care about people.  We really want to try to do what we can for them.  When we see someone who needs help, we really do want to try help them.  So let’s ask God to help us follow Jesus’ example.  No matter how much is going on in our lives, let’s not go through life with blinders on.  Let’s see the people around us.  And let’s help them.  That’s how we can show God’s love to people.  It’s what Jesus did.  It’s what Jesus wants us to do, too.

 

Show Us the Way

The message at the Wednesday night Lent service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on February 24, 2021.  The Bible verses used are John 14:1-14.

It’s the last night that Jesus will spend on earth.  Before long, he will go to the Garden of Gethsemane.  He will be arrested there.  He will then be tried, beaten, and sentenced to death.  The next day, he will be taken to Golgotha, will be hung on a cross, and will die.

            Jesus knows all this, of course.  He’s told the disciples about it several times.  Just before our reading tonight, he tells them again.  He tells them that it’s going to be one of them who betrays him and causes all this to happen.  

            With all this on his mind, it would be understandable if Jesus’ thoughts were on himself and what he was about to go through.  But that’s not how it was.  Jesus was not thinking about himself.  He was thinking about God the Father, and he was thinking about his ministry on earth.  He was thinking about the disciples, too.  Jesus knew this would be the last chance he would have to be with them.  Anything he had to tell them, he’d better tell them now.  Tomorrow it would be too late.

            Jesus makes a fairly long speech, at least as far as his recorded speeches go.  What we read tonight was just the start of it.  But it’s interesting, I think, that he started by giving words of comfort and reassurance and hope to the disciples.

            I don’t know if the disciples still really understood, at this point, just what was going to happen.  But they understood that Jesus was going to leave them, and that thought made them sad.  It also made them scared.  After all, Jesus was their leader.  More than that, he was the Son of God, the Messiah.  Without him, where would they go?  What would they do?  Who would be in charge?  Who would be the one who told them the mind of God?  They had been with Jesus for three years.  The thought that he would not be there, that somehow they would have to figure out a way to carry on without him, was a really scary thought to them.

            So Jesus tries to reassure them.  He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  You believe in God; believe also in me.”

            What we usually hear in that--or at least what I usually hear in that--is Jesus telling them to accept him as the Savior.  And I think that’s part of it, but I think there’s more than that going on here.  As I think about this, I think what Jesus is saying is, “Trust me.  Trust me that things are going to be all right.  I know you don’t think so.  I know you don’t see how.  But trust me.  Trust me that things are all going to work out the way they’re supposed to.  Even when it looks like they’re not, even when it seems like nothing is going right, trust me that it is.  Trust me that this is all part of the plan, that all these things are happening because they need to happen.  Trust me that God’s glory is going to be revealed through all of this.”

            And if we stopped right there, we’d already have a good message.  Trust in the Lord.  Even when it seems like things are going wrong.  Even when we don’t see how they’re ever going to be right.  Do not let your heart be troubled.  Believe in God.  Trust in Jesus.  The Lord is still in control, and eventually the glory of the Lord is still going to be revealed.

            But of course, Jesus does not stop right there.  He says, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.”  And then, we’re told, Thomas asks, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

            And this is why I love Thomas so much.  He gets a bum rap.  He’s known as “the doubter”.  People look down on him.  But he’s the one, here and at other times, who’s willing to say what everyone else is thinking.  You know that the other disciples were having just as much trouble understanding Jesus as Thomas was.  But none of them had the guts to say so.  They just sat there, trying to act like they knew what Jesus was saying.  

            But not Thomas.  Thomas has the courage to speak up.  And he has the faith to speak up, too.  Thomas thinks, “I need to understand this, and I don’t, so I’m going to ask.  I don’t care if I look stupid.  I need to know what Jesus is talking about here, and I don’t, so I’m going to ask.”

            And Jesus answers with some of the most important words in the Bible.  Not that the Bible has unimportant words, but listen to what Jesus says here.  “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

            Jesus was going to God the Father.  He wants us to go to God the Father, too.  But the only way we can get there is through belief in Jesus.  Just belief in a generic “god” won’t do it.  Just trying to be a good person won’t do it.  Belief in Mother Earth won’t do it.  Belief in Allah or some other god won’t do it.  The only way to get to heaven is through belief in Jesus Christ.  Period.

            That’s not a popular thing to say.  We want to say that all roads lead to heaven, or that at least a lot of them do.  We want to say that everybody goes to heaven.  We want to say that, because God loves us, God would never let anyone go to hell.  That’s what we want to say.  Saying that there’s only one way to go to heaven, and that the one way is belief in Jesus Christ, just does not seem right.

            But then, the truth is often not popular.  But truth is not subject to a vote.  Truth does not care about our opinions or about our feelings.  Truth just is.  And that’s especially the case when it comes to God’s truth.  God’s truth is not up for a vote.  God’s truth is not interested in what the polls show.  God’s truth just is.  The truth that belief in Jesus is the only way to heaven just is.  Period.

            Jesus continues.  He says, “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”  And then, in answer to a comment by Philip, Jesus says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

            We feel sometimes like it’s hard to really know or understand God.  And it is, sometimes.  But Jesus tells us that if we want to get to know God, if we want to understand God, the best way to do it is just to look at him.  

            Think about the awesome advantage that is.  Think of how privileged we are.  God would not have had to do that for us.  God could’ve been a distant, impersonal God.  God could’ve left us to guess at who He is.  God could’ve left us in doubt, in fear, doing things and just hoping and praying that those things would be what God wanted.  But God did not do that.  God gave us the chance to know.  All we need to do is look at Jesus.

            Want to know whether God loves you?  Look at how Jesus loved people.  Want to know the kind of power God has?  Look at the power Jesus had.  Want to know how God wants us to live?  Look at how Jesus said we should live.  Want to know how we should treat people?  Look at how Jesus treated people.  Want to know what God thinks about marriage, about money, about giving, about all kinds of things?  Just look at what Jesus said about all those things.  If we want to get to know God and understand God, all we need to do is look to Jesus.

            Our goal in this season of Lent is to repent of our sins, ask for forgiveness, and change our lives.  But it’s not enough to desire to change, even if we really mean it.  We need to know what we’re going to change into.  And because God loves us, God showed us what we should change into.  All we need to do is look to Jesus.

            If we look to Jesus, if we follow Jesus, if we live the way Jesus wants us to live, we will change our lives.  It won’t be easy.  We probably won’t do it perfectly.  But we can do it.  With God’s help, we can do it.  With God’s love, we can do it.  With God’s power, we can do it.

            Do not let your heart be troubled.  Trust in God and believe in Jesus.  Know God by looking to Jesus.  Jesus shows us the way, because Jesus is the way.