God's Love

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

Do you believe that God cares about you?  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Three Hundred Sixty-five Blank Pages

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            Listen to this part of our reading again:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Confirmation Class

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Right Place, Right Time

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Luke 2:8-20.

            You know, we’ve gotten so used to the Christmas story as it is that we sometimes forget all the really strange things that went into making it happen.  God actually went to a lot of trouble to make sure the birth of Jesus was no ordinary, common place event.  He was born to a virgin–that, in and of itself, made it unique.  Further, the virgin was, as far as we can tell, just a common, ordinary person, although clearly a person of great faith.  With a soon-to-be husband who was also just a common, ordinary person, although also a person of great faith.  And then, having Jesus is born when this couple is a long way from home, apparently with no one around to help them.  And of course, Jesus is born in a stable, again with no family around, no friends around, just a bunch of animals.

            But none of these unusual circumstances would’ve meant much if nobody knew about them, right?  So, God had to make sure that someone did know about it, and that they would spread the story far and wide.  Enter the shepherds.  The shepherds were the ones who were going to make sure everyone knew about the strange, unusual birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

So the question is, why shepherds?  And why these shepherds?  Why would God choose them as the messengers, as the ones who were going to spread the word about the coming of the Messiah?

            We’ve talked about this before, but shepherds were not exactly among the most respected people in society.  It was a tough job.  You were out in the elements all the time, from the heat of the summer to the cold of the winter, and even though they were in a desert area it still got cold.  You had to be on the lookout constantly, to protect the sheep from wild animals.  You also had to be on the lookout to protect them from thieves and robbers. 

            Being a shepherd was not a highly sought-after position.  Very few kids grew up wanting to be a shepherd.  It was basically a job you took if you could not find a better job.  It was better than being a beggar, but that’s about it.  And these are the people God chose to be the ones who would make sure the story of the birth of Jesus Christ was remembered.

            And the thing is, the Bible gives no indication that these particular shepherds were at all special or unusual in any way.  They do not appear to have been any better than any other shepherds.  They don’t seem to have been any smarter, or any more virtuous, or any more faithful.  In fact, we’re really told nothing about them.  The Bible gives no indication that they were chosen for any specific reason at all, other than the fact that they happened to be close to Bethlehem, close enough that they could get to the stable to see Jesus while he was still lying in the manger.

            So again the question is, why shepherds?  And why these shepherds?  Why were they the ones that were chosen to spread the word about the birth of the Messiah?

           One reason might be their very ordinariness.  They may have been chosen partly because of their low status.  Now, I don’t think it’s true to say, as some do, that Jesus came specifically for the poor and downtrodden.  Jesus came for everybody, from the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich.  But I do think God may have wanted to emphasize that “everybody” includes people of low status.

            In the society of Jesus’ time, class and status were incredibly important.  They still have meaning now, too, of course.  But back then it was even more so.  The religious leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the priests and the teachers of the law--most of them clearly thought that they were better than everyone else, that they were a little closer to God than the rest of the people were.  Shepherds may well have been chosen to be God’s messengers specifically because they had low status.  God may have wanted to make it clear that the Messiah had come to save everyone, not just the wealthy and the religious leaders and the other “respectable” people of the time.

            Another reason shepherds may have been chosen is that they might be more believable, simply because they had nothing to gain by lying about it.  I mean, think about this story they were telling.  “We were out in the field one night, and all of a sudden this angel came and told us the Savior of the world had been born in a barn and was lying in a manger in Bethlehem.  And then a whole host of angels came and sang praises to God.  So we went to Bethlehem and there the Savior was.  He was a baby, and you know what?  He was lying in a manger.  That’s how we saw the Savior of the world”

            I mean, that’s a pretty unbelievable story, right?  How was it going to help the shepherds any to make up a story like that?  What possible motive could they have? 

Now, if one of the Pharisees or the chief priests had told a story like that, you could see where he might have made it up.  He might be trying to gain status, telling people that an angel had talked to him.  He might be trying to get people to think of him as a prophet or something.  It would seem like having something like this happen to a Pharisee or a chief priest would definitely help advance their career.

But shepherds?  How was it going to help shepherds to make up a story like this?  It was not going to make people think better of them.  It was not going to help them get better jobs or more money.  In fact, they were risking ridicule by telling this story.  “An angel came to you?  The heavenly host appeared to you?  Have you been getting into the wineskins or something?”  The shepherds had absolutely nothing to gain by making a story like this up.  The only reason they would tell it is if it was true.

            Another reason why shepherds may have been chosen is that shepherds, by the nature of their work, traveled a lot.  They were constantly on the move, looking for green pastures.  After all, again, a lot of this was desert country.  There was not a lot of good grass around.  So, because shepherds traveled, they would go to different towns and see different people.  And that would give them more chances to tell their story, to spread the word about the birth of the divine Savior, Jesus Christ.

            Those are all reasons God might have chosen shepherds.  But as for why these particular shepherds, I really don’t think we can even speculate.  Again, we are told nothing about them.  We don’t even know their names. 

As far as we can tell, there is no specific reason these shepherds were chosen.  There may have been, but if there was, the Bible gives us no indication of it.  As far as we can tell, they were simply in the right place at the right time.

I wonder if the shepherds ever thought about it.  It seems like they must have.  Surely they must have thought, “Why us?  Why would God choose us to be the ones to be the first ones, other than his parents, to see the Savior of the World on earth?”

If they did, I don’t suppose they ever came up with much of an answer.  But even so, they did not let that stop them.  The one thing we know about those shepherds is that they did what God wanted them to do.  They went to Bethlehem and saw the baby.  Then they went and spread the word.  They spread the word so well that we still know the story over two thousand years later.  For whatever reason, God had chosen them to do this, and they did not let God down.

God has chosen you to do something, too.  Maybe you know what it is.  Maybe you don’t, yet.  Maybe you know what it is, but you’re hesitant to do it.  Maybe you’re thinking, “But I’m nobody special.  I’m just a common, ordinary person.  There’s no reason for God to choose me.  I’m not smarter than anyone else.  I’m not more virtuous than anyone else.  I’m not more faithful than anyone else.  Why would God choose me?  Why me?”

Maybe, at some point, you’ll come up with an answer.  Or, maybe you won’t.  Maybe there isn’t a good answer.  Maybe, like the shepherds, you just happen to be in the right place at the right time.  But the thing is, that’s not the question.  The question is not “Why you?”  The question is, “What are you going to do about it?”  And of course, I need to ask that question of myself, too.  What am I going to do about it?

Are we going to shirk our responsibility?  Are we going to come up with excuses?  Or are we going to do what God wants us to do?  Are we going to follow God, and trust God, even if we don’t understand “Why me?”

The shepherds, as far as we can tell, never did understand why they were chosen.  But they did not let that stop them.  They did what God wanted them to do.  They did not let God down.

Will you?  Will I?

 

Faith Takes Courage

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, December 26, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 2:1-18.

It’s the day after Christmas.  We’ve opened the presents.  We’ve had some good meals.  We’ve enjoyed some time with family and friends.  At this time of year, we want to enjoy the afterglow.  And part of that is to hear a nice, warm, fuzzy Christmas story.

The trouble is that the time right after the first Christmas was not nice, or warm, or fuzzy.  It was a bad time, a dangerous time.  Really, an evil time.  And we hear about that in our Bible reading today, the story of the wise men. 

The magi–the wise men–are one of the staples of the Christmas story.  Every nativity scene has them in it.  And yet we really know almost nothing about them.  This story, from the gospel of Matthew, is the only time they are mentioned in the Bible at all.

            We don’t know where they came from, other than “the east”.  We don’t know how many of them there were–we traditionally have three of them in the nativity scene, but the Bible does not say there were three of them.  It just says that they left three gifts–gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  

            They knew that the star they had seen was a sign that the King of the Jews had been born.  But they clearly did not know exactly where that would be.  They came to Jerusalem and asked around.  Eventually, word got to Herod of these wise men asking about a king of the Jews, and Herod, after consultation with the chief priests, is the one who actually told the wise men to go to Bethlehem.  One wonders if, without Herod, the wise men would have even found the Savior.

            They did, of course.  And they worshiped him, and they left the gifts.  Herod had wanted them to come back to him after they found the Savior, but an angel told them not to do that, so they went back home.  And we never hear about the wise men again.

            And a lot of times, that’s where we leave the story.  We don’t want to deal with what comes next.  Because what comes next is Joseph, Mary and Jesus on the run.  They are trying to escape Herod, because Herod wants to kill Jesus.  And just to make sure he gets Jesus, Herod orders the death of every male child in and around Bethlehem who was two years old or younger.

            We’re not going to put that in the kids’ Christmas program, are we?  Think what a terrible thing that would be.  You’re at home with your family.  You have a young son, a baby, maybe a toddler.  Just a typical day, a day to be with the ones you love.  

Then you hear some sort of commotion outside.  It gets louder, nearer.  Shouting.  Crying.  Destruction.  You wonder what in the world could be happening.  You wonder if you should look out to see what’s going on, if you should hide, if you should run.  You don’t know what to do.  Suddenly, there’s a crash.  Roman soldiers have broken down your door.  They don’t say a word.  You stand there, frozen.  They find your son.  They take him.  And they kill him.  And then they leave, moving on to the next house.  The whole thing takes about two minutes.

Can you imagine what that would be like?  The mix of emotions.  The anger.  The guilt.  The wondering why.  The complete irrationality of what just happened.  And overriding all of that, the incredible sense of grief over what just happened.

But as with all stories in the Bible, a question we need to ask is:  Why is this in the Bible?  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not questioning whether it actually happened.  But there are lots of things that happened during Jesus’ life that the Bible does not tell us about.  In fact, we have only one story about him from the time he was a baby until the time he started his ministry when he was about thirty.  So apart from just historical accuracy, why is this story in the Bible?  Why did Matthew, under the divine inspiration of God, decide we need to know about it?  What is it that we’re supposed to learn from this story?

Well, there are probably a lot of things we could learn.  One of them is that God was there to protect Jesus and his family.  God made sure the wise men did not tell Herod where Jesus was.  God made sure Joseph knew to take his family and get out of Bethlehem before the Roman soldiers came.  God made sure that His divine Son would live and be able to fulfill the mission He had been sent to earth for.

But God did not protect the other children in Bethlehem.  Why not?  Why did God allow these other children to be killed?  Why did God not do something to stop it?

It seems like it would’ve been simple to stop it, especially when you’re God.  For one thing, if the wise men had not gone to Jerusalem and asked about the birth of the King of the Jews, Herod would never even have known about it.  Why not keep them from going there?  Why not send an angel to let the wise men know where Jesus was?  Or why not send angels to the other families in town, like God did for Joseph, to tell them to get out of town, too?  Or why not do something to keep the soldiers from going to Bethlehem?  There had to be dozens of ways God could’ve prevented this from happening.

The Bible tells us this was to fulfill an Old Testament prophecy, so in one way that’s an answer, but it still kind of begs the question, right?  The Old Testament prophecy came from God.  God could’ve had the prophecy be different, and have it fulfilled in a different way.  Again, God could’ve prevented this.  And God did not.

One thing this story shows us, I think, is the powerful presence of evil in our world.  Because that’s what this is, right?  Complete, total evil.  I mean, wanting to kill just one young boy would be evil.  Killing all boys two years old or younger, just to make sure you kill the one you want to kill–that’s hard to even imagine.  It’s hard to even comprehend the thought process that would make someone do that.  But the way it sounds, Herod had absolutely no hesitancy in doing this.  

It also shows how easy it is for a powerful person to get others to go along with evil.  Because the way it sounds, nobody who was close to Herod questioned what Herod was doing.  Now, it’s possible that someone did, because the Bible does not specifically say they did not.  But we don’t read of anyone who said “Hey, Herod, this is not right.  You should not be doing this.  It’s just wrong to kill these little boys, no matter what your reason is.”

Would it have taken courage to do that?  Yes, it would.  It would have taken a lot of courage.  If someone had stood up to Herod, Herod could easily have had them killed, too.  And the way it sounds, Herod would not even have thought twice about doing it.

And maybe that’s one of the most important lessons we can take from this story.  It takes courage to be a Christian.  It takes courage to stand up for our faith.  It takes courage to say, hey, this is wrong.  We should not do this.  We cannot do this.

And that courage is not just involved when we’re talking to people in power.  For most of us, that won’t happen very often.  Courage is also when we’re in a group, and someone says something or does something that we know is not right.  Peer pressure is not just something that affects kids, you know.  It affects adults, too.  We all want to be liked.  We all want to have friends.  It takes courage to say, hey, we should not be doing this.  We should not be talking badly about this person.  We should not be spreading gossip about people.  It’s not easy to do that, especially when we’re in a group of people we consider our friends.  It takes courage to stand up for our faith in those situations.

But of course, standing up for our faith does not always involve stopping things.  Sometimes it involves starting things.  Sometimes, standing up for our faith takes the courage to say, hey, we should do this.  We should be helping this person.  We should be praying for these people.  We should talk about Jesus when we’re out in public.  Not only should we do those things, we need to do those things.  But sometimes, those are things a lot of people don’t want to do.  Sometimes they’re things we, ourselves, don’t want to do.  It takes courage to say, hey, we need to do them, even if we’d rather not, because these are the things Jesus wants us to do.

Maybe you have that courage.  Maybe you’ve shown that courage.  Maybe you show it every day.  It’s not my job to judge you.  I just know that I do not show that courage nearly as often as I should.  It’s something I need to work on and pray about.  And I suspect I’m not the only one.

Evil is a powerful presence in the world, and it takes lots of forms.  Some of them are big, and some of them are small.  Standing up to it takes courage.  With God’s help, may we all have the courage to stand up for our Christian faith, no matter what the consequences may be.

 

God Will See You Through

The message from the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Luke 2:1-7.

            What we read this evening was the part of the story of the first Christmas Eve.  At the time, of course, no one knew it was Christmas Eve.  Nobody knew it was anything.  It was just another day, a day just like any other day, as far as anyone knew.

            Now for Mary and Joseph, it was not just another day.  It was the day their baby, their first child, was going to be born.  And you know, it’s interesting, considering how big Christmas is for us today, that the Bible really does not make a big deal out of it.  The gospels of Mark and John don’t even deal with it.  We don’t get any of Jesus’ birth story there.  Matthew just deals with it very briefly, about eight verses.  Luke is the only one of the gospel writers that goes into any detail at all about that first Christmas.  And when you really look at this story, you realize that there are a lot of things about it that we don’t know.  There are also some things we think we know that the Bible does not actually say.

            We know that Mary and Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem shortly before Jesus was born.  That was a trip of about seventy or eighty miles.  It’s estimated that it would’ve taken them at least four days, on foot, to make that trip.  Of course, Mary was not far from giving birth, so she may have needed to rest more frequently, which would’ve made the trip longer.  We always illustrate their trip with Mary riding a donkey, but the Bible does not mention a donkey.  For all we know, Mary and Joseph may have both walked all the way, carrying whatever provisions they could.

            The Bible does not say anything about whether they were traveling with anyone or if they were on their own.  It makes sense that there might have been some others there.  The road from Nazareth to Bethlehem was a dangerous one, with both wild animals and human criminals lying in wait for travelers.  There’d be safety in numbers.  Besides, Mary and Joseph cannot have been the only ones who had to travel to Bethlehem, the city of David, for the census.  It seems like there would have to have been some others.  If so, they probably would’ve traveled together.

            We always imagine Jesus’ birth as having come the first night after Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem.  And that may be how it worked out, but the Bible does not say so.  Luke simply says, “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born.”  They may have already been in Bethlehem for a while, we don’t know.  We don’t know that Jesus was born at night, either.  We know the angel appeared the shepherds at night, but that does not necessarily mean the baby was born then.  

The chances are that Joseph and Mary were not the only ones who could not find a room, either.  Bethlehem was a small town.  And of course, back then there was no such thing as a hotel the way we think of them now.  There were people who had a few rooms they would rent out.  There probably were not a whole lot of rooms available under the best circumstances, and of course there was no way for people to call ahead and make a reservation.  I would imagine there were lots of other people who took whatever shelter they could find.  Some probably could not find any, and simply had to camp out in the open.  Joseph and Mary may have been among the lucky ones, really.  At least they had shelter.

            So why am I going through all this?  Well, a couple of reasons.  One of them is to just make the point that when we read the Bible, we need to be a little bit careful.  There are a lot of times when we assume things that the Bible does not actually say.  Sometimes our assumptions may be justified, but sometimes they’re not.  And when they’re not, when we start thinking that the Bible says things it does not actually say, we can run into trouble.  And I’ve been guilty of that, too, sometimes.  I’m trying to get better about it, but it’s something most of us do sometimes.  And it’s a trap, because it can lead us to think we’re following God’s word when we’re not.

            But the other point is one we’ve made before.  When we read these stories in the Bible, we need to not get bogged down in all the little details.  Instead, we need to always keep a few questions in mind.  Why is this story in the Bible?  What am I supposed to learn from it?  What does this story teach me about God and about faith in Jesus Christ?

            So, what do you think the answers are?  Because this story could easily have been left out of the Bible.  As I said, Mark and John do leave it out.  Matthew deals with it very briefly.  So why is the story of Jesus’ birth in the Bible?  What are we supposed to learn from it?  What does this story teach us about God and about faith in Jesus Christ?

            I’m sure I don’t have the whole answer.  But here’s what I think is at least part of the answer.

            Jesus truly was born as a human being.  He was not an angel.  He was not a supernatural being.  Yes, he had some special powers as the divine Son of God, but he was also fully human.  And he was not born to wealthy people living in a palace.  He was not born to people who were important or well-known or special.  He was born to ordinary people, who lived ordinary lives.  And in fact, he was born in conditions that were not very pleasant at all.

            Why is that important?  Because all this tells us one thing about Jesus Christ:  he understands.  He knows what it’s like to leave as a human being.  He knows what it’s like to live an ordinary human life.  He knows what it’s like to have to work hard.  He knows what it’s like to have to struggle.  He knows what it’s like to be a kid.  He knows what it’s like to be an adolescent.  He knows what it’s like to be an adult.  Jesus knows what all of that is like, because he experienced it himself.  Jesus understands the things we go through as human beings.

            And because Jesus was human, Jesus also understands our emotions.  He understands our feelings.  He knows what it’s like to be angry or frustrated.  He knows what it’s like to be depressed.  He knows what it’s like to feel alone.  He also knows what it’s like to be happy.  He knows what it’s like to feel love.  He knows what it’s like to be happy or sad, to laugh or to cry.  Jesus knows all those things, because he went through them all himself.  Jesus understands everything we feel as human beings.

            And because Jesus understands that, we know that God understands it, too.  Because Jesus is God--God the Son.  Anything Jesus knows, God knows.  Anything Jesus understands, God understands.  So whatever you’re going through, know that God understands it.

            But why is that important?  I mean, it’s nice, I guess.  It’s nice to know that God understands what we’re going through.  But how does that help?  How does God’s understanding change anything?  After all, we still have to go through what we’re going through.  What difference does God understanding it make?

            Well, in a sense, we all have to answer that question for ourselves.  Because what our answer is depends on how we see God and on how much faith we have in God.  If we think God really does not care about us much, if we think God just sits in heaven observing things and not doing anything about them, if we think God is not involved in our day-to-day lives, then it probably makes no difference at all.  We’ll still think we have to get through whatever we’re going through on our own.

            But if we believe that God does care about us, if we believe that God loves us, and if we believe that God does get involved in our day-to-day lives, then it makes all the difference in the world.  It does not mean that God will magically take us out of tough situations and solve all our problems.  But it does mean that, whatever we’re going through, we can count on God to help us get through it.  God will help us get through and God will see us through to the other side.  It’s like what it says in the Twenty-third Psalm.  “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”  God does not promise to keep us out of the dark valleys.  God just promises to be with us when we’re in those dark valleys and help us get through them into the light.

            We think, now, that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are supposed to be days of joy.  But they were not completely days of joy for Joseph and Mary.  Yes, I’m sure they were happy that their son was born and that he was okay, but the circumstances of Jesus’ birth were not exactly what first-time parents would have in mind.

            Joseph and Mary went through some tough times.  What we read today was only part of it.  But through all their tough times, they knew that God was with them.  They knew God would help them get through their tough times, and that God would ultimately bring them into the light.  And God will do that for you and me, too.

            I hope this Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are days of joy for you.  But if they’re not, know that God understands.  Know that God will be there for you.  And know that, whatever you may be going through, God will see you through it.

 

The Light

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, December 19, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 9:2-7.

            In our reading for today, Isaiah says, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.”

            Some of us have heard those words before.  And we’re familiar with the phrase, “Jesus is the light of the world.”  Jesus referred to himself that way.  In John Chapter Eight, verse twelve, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

            We’ve heard these things, but I don’t know if we really think about them.  And even if we do think about them, we don’t necessarily relate to them the way people did in Jesus’ time.

            We live in a world where we don’t have that much darkness.  I mean, yes, the sun goes down around five o’clock, and some of don’t like that.  The development of electricity changed everything in regard to darkness, at least in a physical sense.  We all have plenty of light in our homes.  You go outside and you see streetlights.  Even out in the country, every farm has security lights.  The only way we’re going to be in physical darkness is when we choose to be.

            Or unless the power goes out.  Our world looks completely different when that happens, right?  I remember a time when we lived in Wessington Springs, and the power was out for about four days.  You’d go uptown at night, and it looked completely different.  You could see stars you’d never seen before.  They jumped out at you.  It was an amazing sight.

            But even then, those stars, and the moon, provided some light.  Imagine being in total darkness.  Wanda and I did experience that, too, during that power outage–at the time we lived in a basement apartment with no windows.  When you’re in total darkness, you really appreciate light.  Any kind of light.  A flashlight.  A candle.  A match.  Anything.  The smallest light seems huge when you’re in total darkness.

            But there’s another kind of darkness, too.  And some of us have experienced that kind of darkness.  I’m talking about a spiritual darkness.  I’m talking about an emotional darkness.  I’m talking about feeling like everything is wrong, and it will never be right again.  I’m talking about a feeling of hopelessness.  I’m talking about a feeling of despair.  “Despair” is not a word we use a lot in conversation, but it’s a feeling that things are bad and there is zero chance that they will ever get better.  Not a small chance, but no chance.  Things are bad, they’re going to get worse, and there is nothing you or anyone else can do about it.

            I know there are people in our parish who have been there.  It’s an awful feeling.  It’s about as awful a feeling as there could ever be.  To be completely without hope.  To feel that things are miserable and always will be miserable.  There’s no chance that they will ever be better.  That’s really living in total darkness.

            When you’re in that kind of darkness, you’re desperate for a light.  Any light.  Any hope.  Anything that can give you some reason to think that maybe, possibly, there is a chance that things can get better.  Anything, even the smallest light, that might help you believe that there is a way out of the darkness.

            Isaiah tells us that God provides us that way out.  But that way out is not some small, little light.  Isaiah describes it as a “great light”.  It is a beacon, shining the way.  It’s the light of Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

            And the thing is, it’s a permanent light.  That light, the light of Jesus Christ, will never go out.  Many people have tried.  Throughout history, over and over again, various groups have tried to put out the light of Jesus Christ.  And they’re still trying.  In fact, Satan himself is trying.  But none of them has succeeded.  None of them ever will succeed.  The combined forces of darkness cannot succeed against the light that is Jesus Christ.

            But here’s the thing.  When we’re living in emotional darkness, when we’re living in spiritual darkness, it can be hard to see the light.  And it can be hard to trust the light.  Even a great light.  Even a light as bright as the sun.  When you’ve been in darkness, that kind of light can even be scary.

            Maybe that idea sounds strange to you.  After all, I just said that when you’re in darkness you’re desperate for a light, and now I’m saying that when you’re in darkness light can be scary.  But both can be true.

            When you’re in darkness, well, you kind of get used to it.  Not that you like it, but–it starts to seem normal to you.  It’s just the way things are.  It seems like it’s the way things are supposed to be.  And so, when the light comes–can I trust that?  It’s different.  It’s strange.  It’s unusual.  Most of us are resistant to change, even positive change.  The darkness, even though it’s not good, is something you’re used to.  You know how to handle that, how to deal with it.  The light–well, what’s that?  What’s it going to lead me to?  You want to get out of the darkness and into the light, you really do.  It’s just–you’ve been disappointed too many times.  You’ve thought you were finding light, only to find yourself plunged into darkness again.  And so, again, when the true light comes–you’re hesitant.  You’re unsure.  You’re afraid to trust it, because you might be disappointed and plunged into darkness again.

            And that’s where the rest of us, the people who say we’re followers of Jesus, come into it.  I said earlier that Jesus called himself the light of the world, and that’s exactly true.  But Jesus made a few statements about the light of the world.  In John, Chapter Nine, verse five, Jesus says, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  But Jesus knew he would not be in the world forever.  He knew the time was coming when he would go back to heaven.  And so, Jesus also said this in Matthew Chapter Five, verse fourteen.  Jesus said to his followers, “You are the light of the world.”

            Jesus came to be the light.  The true light that gives light to everyone, as the Apostle John puts it.  But you and I, as Jesus representatives, need to be that light, too.  We need to be the light of the world.  Not that we can be Jesus–there is only one Savior, only one Messiah, only one divine Son of God.  But you and I are called by Jesus to be the smaller lights.  Lights that reflect that great light.  

We need to go to people who are in darkness.  We need to shine the light of Jesus on those people.  We need to show them the true light, the light of Christ.  We need to let them know they can trust that light.  We need to show them that the light of Christ will never let them down.  We need to do everything we can, by word and by deed, to let people know that they don’t need to be scared of the light of Christ.  That light is a light they can trust.  That light is a light they can count on.  It is a great light, not just because it is a bright light, but because it is a good light, a noble light.  It is the light of love, and that love will never let them down.  That’s the message you and I, as followers of Jesus, need to give to people who are in darkness.

That’s the job Jesus gave us to do, not just at Christmastime but always.  It’s not an easy job, sometimes.  But here’s the thing–we don’t do it alone.  Jesus said that when he went back to heaven, God’s Holy Spirit would come.  And God’s Holy Spirit would teach us, and lead us, and guide us.  God’s Holy Spirit will show us where to go and tell us what to say and do.

If we had to do this ourselves, we never could.  But we don’t.  All we need to do is to do our part.  God will accomplish the rest.  As Isaiah says, “the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

And that’s a good thing.  Because we don’t want people to follow us.  We don’t want people following our lesser lights.  We want people to follow the great light, just as we follow the great light.  The light of Christ.  A light that will never go out or even grow dim.  A light that will always lead us out of the darkness and into salvation and eternal life.

“On those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”  May each of us see the light of Christ.  May each of us trust the light of Christ.  May each of us follow the light of Christ.  And may each of us do whatever we can to share that light with others.  May the whole world live in the light of Christ, not just at Christmas, but always.