The Most Important Person

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church September 4, 2022.  The Bible verses used are John 9:1-41.

            It’s amazing to me how many of Jesus’ miracles don’t seem to have been planned out ahead of time.  Think about it.  Jesus just goes to a wedding as a guest, and the next thing we know he’s turning water into wine.  Jesus is trying to get off by himself, but a bunch of people follow him, he speaks to them, and the next thing we know he’s feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  Those are just a couple of examples where Jesus was really just kind of minding his own business, and all of a sudden circumstances prompt him to work a miracle.

            And our story today is another one.  Jesus is walking down the road, sees a blind man, and decides to heal him.  The way it’s written, it does not sound like Jesus set out that day to heal a blind man.  It does not sound like Jesus had any particular plan, really.  It just says “as he was walking along, he saw a man who was blind since birth.”  The disciples ask him whose fault it was that this many had been born blind, and Jesus says, “This happened so that the works of God might be displayed through him.”

            You know, as I read this, I have all kinds of questions.  First, how did the disciples know this man had been born blind?  I mean, I can see how they could’ve figured out that he was blind, but how did they know he was born that way?  Was he somebody they knew?  Did Jesus tell them?  

            And then, I wonder how the blind man felt when he heard this conversation between Jesus and the disciples about whose fault it was that he’d been born blind.  I mean, the way it sounds, they’re having this conversation right in front of him.  Have you ever had that happen, to have people talk about you like you were not even there, even though you are right there, right in front of them?  Talk about feeling insignificant.  This guy might just as well have been a rock by the side of the road, for all the disciples noticed him.

            But then, he’d have heard Jesus say that bit about him being blind “so that the works of God might be displayed through him.”  What must he have thought about that?  He was pretty confused, probably.  We don’t even know if he knew who Jesus was.  He’d have heard the disciples call him “Rabbi”, so he’d have known that much.  But did he know Jesus could work miracles?  

And how was his being blind going to let the works of God be displayed.  What works of God, anyway?  Was Jesus saying his blindness was a work of God?  He must have really wondered what was going on.

So Jesus spits on the ground, makes some mud, and rubs it on the guy’s eyes.  He tells him “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.”

As the story comes to us, that’s the only thing Jesus said.  He did not explain who he was.  He did not explain what he was doing.  He did not say what, if anything, would happen after this guy washed in the Pool of Siloam.  He just said to do it.

And the guy did it!  That’s pretty amazing, really.  Again, we don’t know that he had any idea who Jesus was.  We don’t know that he had any idea that Jesus had special healing powers.  When he was going to the Pool of Siloam, what was he thinking?  Did he really believe he was going to be healed?  Or did he think, well, what have I got to lose, really?  

And it worked!  Can you imagine how he must have felt?  Can you imagine what that would be like?  To have been born blind, to never have seen anything, to not even really understand what it meant to see something.  And then, all of a sudden, you can see!  I mean, that had to feel incredible.

And then come the questions.  First from his neighbors.  Now, you really cannot blame them for having questions.  I mean, they’d known this guy for years, they knew he was blind, and now he can see?  How’s that work?  How’s it even possible?

But then the Pharisees question him.  He tells them the story, and they refuse to believe it.  So they ask him again.  And he tells them again.  This keeps happening, over and over and over.  The Pharisees keep asking him questions, he keeps answering them, and they keep refusing to believe it.

But here’s the thing.  Think about this.  The day before this--in fact, earlier that same day--the Pharisees would not have had any interest in this guy at all.  They would’ve walked right past him.  I mean, he was a blind man.  He was a beggar.  In their world, he was being punished by God, either because of his own sins or his parents’ sins.  He was essentially a non-person in the eyes of the Pharisees.  They would’ve ignored him.  They would not have given him the time of day.  They’d have had zero interest in anything he had to say.

And now, just a few hours later, this guy is the most important person around.  The Pharisees pretty much demand to talk to him.  And they keep talking to him, questioning him.  And as you look at the answers he gives to the Pharisees, it sounds like this formerly blind man loves the attention he’s getting, and you cannot blame him.  It also sounds like he gives no deference to the Pharisees, and you cannot blame him for that, either.  He tells the Pharisees Jesus is a prophet.  He asks them if they want to be Jesus’ disciples.  He tells them that Jesus could not do what he’d done if he was not from God.  This guy has to know he’s making the Pharisees mad, but he does not care.  And there’s no reason he should care, because he knows he’s telling the truth.  If the Pharisees don’t want to accept it, that’s their problem.  But he’s going to praise God, and praise this prophet who has cured him of his blindness, because he knows what happened.  He knows the truth.

Think about what Jesus did for this man.  When you think about it, Jesus really worked two miracles first man.  Jesus cured him of his blindness, of course, and it would’ve been awesome enough if Jesus had just stopped there.  But Jesus did more than that.  Jesus elevated this man from essentially being a non-person to being the most important person around.  He went from being someone who people ignored to someone people could not stop talking to  That had to feel almost as good, maybe even better, as being able to see.  

In the end, of course, the Pharisees threw him out.  But it looks like he did not care, and why should he?  He did not need them anymore.  He did not need anyone.  Except for one person.  He needed Jesus.  When Jesus caught up with him again, he said to Jesus, tell me who the Son of Man is, so I can believe in him.  And was Jesus told him, he worshiped Jesus.

You see, that’s what makes Jesus the great healer.  It’s not just because of his physical healing.  That’s what we always think of, the miraculous physical healing he gave so many people.  That’s important, but it’s not the most important way Jesus heals us.  Jesus provides spiritual healing.  He can take us from feeling like we’re lost, feeling like we’re not important, feeling like no one cares about us, to feeling like we’re the most important person around.  Because in Jesus’ eyes, we are.  Each one of us, to Jesus, is the most important person around.  No matter who insignificant or helpless we feel, each one of us is incredibly important to Jesus.

We’re living in an uncertain world right now.  Some might say it’s a scary world.  It’s a world that seems to be changing every day.  Things that we thought we fixed in our world are no longer there, at least not right now.  We feel kind of lost.  We feel unimportant.  We feel like we have no control over anything.  That’s one of the reasons people start to hoard things--it’s an attempt to have control over some aspect, any aspect, of our lives in a world that seems totally out of control.

But it’s not.  The world is not out of control.  God is still there.  Nothing happens that God does not allow.  And Jesus is still there, and Jesus is still the great healer.  Jesus can heal us physically, and that’s very important.  But Jesus can also heal us spiritually.  In a world where we feel totally insignificant, Jesus can come and make us feel like the most important person around.  Jesus will do that, if we put our faith and trust in him.  If we worship him, like the blind man worshiped him.  Because then we will know the truth, just like the blind man knew the truth.

You and I are not insignificant.  We are not unimportant.  When we experience Jesus’ healing, we’ll know that.  Because then, we will know the truth.

 

A Higher Standard

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 4, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 5:21-48.

            Back in Old Testament times, there were a lot of religious laws.  It started, of course, with the Ten Commandments, and that was fine.  There were only ten of them, after all.  And for the most part, they were pretty simple and easy to remember.  Don’t murder.  Don’t steal.  Honor your parents.  People could handle that.

            But as time went on, more and more laws were added.  Almost all of the book of Leviticus is law.  A lot of Deuteronomy is law.  The laws got more complex.  They got more detailed.  They were harder to remember.

            And then, through the years, came all the interpretations of the laws.  All the decisions of the rabbis.  All the rulings on close questions.  And pretty soon, there was more religious law than anyone could deal with.  People would violate religious laws without knowing it, because they simply could not remember all those laws.

            It was a mess in a lot of ways, and yet, it was really important.  Because the laws came from God.  They were a measure of your faith in God.  They were the way you showed your obedience to God.  The breaking of a religious law, even a minor one, was not a trivial thing.  It was something for which you needed to show repentance.  And you needed to actually do something to show that repentance.

            Then Jesus came.  And, according to some people, Jesus said we could forget about all those religious laws.  After all, Jesus did not always follow them–He broke the Sabbath law, one of the most major laws of all.  We’re not under the law anymore, we’re under grace.  John Chapter One, Verse Seventeen says the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  Romans Chapter Six, Verse Fourteen says “you are not under the law, but under grace.”  Galatians Chapter Two, Verse Twenty-one says, “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.”  Galatians Chapter Five, Verse Four says that if we’re trying to be justified by the law we have been alienated from Christ and have fallen away from grace.  So, clearly, we don’t have to worry about those laws anymore, right?

            Well, yes and no.  On the one hand, it’s true that we no longer have to worry about following hundreds of religious laws to the letter.  But on the other hand, Jesus certainly did not embrace an “anything goes” philosophy.  In fact, in freeing us from the letter of the law, Jesus called us to live according to a higher standard than what the law required.

            One of the things I do every year in confirmation class is have the students read the Ten Commandments.  Then I ask them, what word that is incredibly important to our faith does not appear in the Ten Commandments?  Do any of you know what it is?

            It’s “love”.  Nowhere in the Ten Commandments are we told to show love to anyone.  They do not tell us to love our neighbors.  They don’t tell us to love our parents.  They don’t even tell us to love God.  We’re not supposed to mistreat our neighbors, we’re supposed to honor our parents, and we’re supposed to worship God.  But nothing is said about love.

            You see, what the Ten Commandments do–what all of the religious laws did–is govern behavior.  That’s what all laws do, really.  They regulate behavior.  They tell us what we cannot do.  Sometimes they tell us what we must do.  Sometimes they tell us when and where we can and cannot do things.  But they govern our behavior.  That’s what laws are designed to do.

            And that’s not wrong.  All societies need to have rules of behavior.  You cannot have a functioning society without that.  But when a law governs behavior, its goal is not love.  Its goal is obedience.  We must obey a law.  

            And that’s what the religious laws did.  They forced people to obey.  But while a law can affect our behavior, it cannot affect our feelings.  In other words, you can make me do something, but you cannot make me like it.  You can make me obey you, but you cannot make me love you.  In fact, sometimes forcing obedience has the exact opposite of effect.  Sometimes, when we’re forced to do things, we start to resent the one who’s forcing us to do those things.

            Then Jesus came.  And, while Jesus obviously cared about behavior, his goal was not to require obedience.  His goal was to inspire love.  Love for God, and love for others.  And that’s a higher standard than simply doing what the law required.

            Look at what he says.  He says it’s not enough to just not commit murder.  He says we should not even get angry with a brother or sister.  He says if there’s some problem with a brother or sister, don’t come to church and offer a sacrifice.  Go to your brother or sister and get that problem resolved.  Then, you come back to church and offer a sacrifice.

            He says if you get into a disagreement with someone, don’t get mad and go to court to solve it.  Go to the person you have the disagreement with and work it out.  That’s the way one of his followers is supposed to resolve things.

            Jesus goes on and on, calling us to this higher standard than just doing what the law required.  The law said not to cheat on your spouse, but Jesus says don’t even look at someone with any sort of desire in your heart.  The law said if you take an oath before God, you had to live up to it.  Jesus said we should not even need to take an oath–we should always be honest and keep our word.  The law said that if someone attacked you, you could do no more to them than what they’d done to you.  Jesus said we should not even hurt them at all.  The law said it was okay to hate your enemies.  Jesus said we should love our enemies.

            Over and over again, Jesus calls us to that higher standard.  And Jesus explained why.  He said, look, everyone loves people who love them.  Everyone’s nice to people who are nice to them.  People won’t notice that you’re my followers if that’s all you do, because you won’t be doing anything that’s any different from what everyone else does.  If you want to be my follower, you have to do more than that.  And then, Jesus says that he’s not just calling us to a higher standard, he’s calling us to the highest standard of all.  He says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”         

Jesus told us that God is perfect, and we should be perfect, too.  We hear that, and it’s tempting to reject it.  Or to say that Jesus did not mean it.  After all, we’re only human, right?  We cannot be perfect.  God is perfect, of course, but a human being is not and cannot be.  Jesus is holding us to a standard we cannot possibly meet.

            And that’s true.  He is.  And Jesus knew that, of course.  Note, Jesus did not say we have to be perfect to go to heaven.  None of this negates what Jesus said at other times–that our salvation is based on faith in him, and not on our behavior.  The point is that if we truly believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God, and if we truly claim to be His followers and His disciples, then we are called to live differently from those who are not Jesus’ followers.  We are called to be better.  We are called to be the best people we can possibly be.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven, but because of love.  Love of God and love of others.

            That’s what Jesus’ higher standard is about.  The law governed behavior, but Jesus wants to rule our hearts.  We are not supposed to live our lives based on obedience to a set of rules.  We are supposed to live our lives based on love–love of God and love of others.

            If we live our lives based on love, we will be perfect.  Not in the sense of never making mistakes–we will always make mistakes.  There will be times when we need to ask for forgiveness, both from God and from others.  

But a life based on love is a life based on God, because God is love.  A life based on love is one in which we try to live as close to the way Jesus wants us to live as it is possible for humans to live.  That’s the sense in which we will be perfect–perfect in our goals, perfect in our intentions, perfect in our desire to live as much of a Christ-like life as we possibly can.

The law governed behavior, but the law could not touch people’s hearts.  Only the love of Jesus can do that.  If we love Jesus, we will do our best to live by a higher standard than what the law requires.  We will live our lives based on love.  And no matter how many mistakes we make, a life based on love will always be perfect in God’s eyes.

 

Things Must Happen

The message given in the Sunday night worship service of the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, August 28, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Revelation 5:1-6a and 6:1-17.

            In our reading for tonight, The Apostle John is being given a vision.  At the right hand of God he sees a scroll.  There’s writing on both sides.  It’s sealed with seven seals.  There’s no one to found who’s worthy to open the seals.  And John begins to cry.

            We’re given no indication that John has any idea what’s on the scroll.  I wonder, if he had known what would happen when the seals were opened, whether he’d have been crying.  He might’ve preferred the scroll to stay sealed.  But we’ll come to that in a minute.

            Because someone is found who’s worthy to open the seals.  The Lion of Judah.  The Root of David.  The Lamb who had been slain.  Jesus Christ.  Jesus is worthy to open the seals.  And he starts to do so.

            I know some of you are familiar with the four horsemen of the apocalypse.  It’s something we don’t hear a lot about these days.  I think people more familiar with them years ago than they are now.  But if you’ve ever heard that phrase, this is where it comes from.  As the Christ opens the first four seals, a horse and a rider appear each time.  And what they represent is not good, at least not in our eyes.  Conquest.  War.  Famine.  Death.  These are the plagues, the bad things that are going to happen as the end of the world approaches.  Which is why I wonder whether John knew what was going to happen when the seals were opened.  

            When the fifth seal is opened, the martyrs make an appearance.  The people who have been killed because they stood up for the word of God.  And they ask when their murders are going to be avenged.  They want God to get going and wipe out evil now.  But they are each given a white robe and told to wait.

            Then comes the opening of the sixth seal.  And there’s an earthquake larger than any earthquake anyone has ever seen.  And everyone goes to hide.  They are desperate to get away, because they know God’s judgment is coming.  As it says, “The great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?        

One of the things we always wonder about is why God allows bad things to happen.  Now, understand what I said there.  I said God allows bad things to happen.  I did not say God causes bad things to happen.  Many of us--maybe most of us--have had some really bad things happen, either to ourselves or people we care about.  I’m not saying God pointed a finger and said “This bad thing is going to happen to you now.”  But if God is all-powerful, as we believe, then God could stop bad things from happening.  And God chooses not to, at least much of the time.  And we wonder why.

            But what our reading for today shows is that allowing bad things to happen is part of God’s plan.  As it says in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, there’s a time for everything.  Including a time to weep and to mourn.  A time to die.  A time to kill.  A time to hate.  A time for war.  Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for all those things.  And it also tells us that God has made everything, which must include all those things, beautiful, in its time.  God has made things like death, killing, hatred, war--God has made all those things beautiful in their time.

            To me, that means that God allowing all of those things must, in some way, be part of God’s plan.  And we’re also told, in Romans Eight, Verse Twenty-eight, that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

            And again, it is not God causing these things to happen.  It’s God allowing them to happen.  The fact that the Christ is the only one worthy to open the seals shows that God has power over those bad things--conquest, war, famine, and death.  And when the seals are opened, God does not command that conquest, war, famine, and death take place.  Those things are simply set free.  They are allowed to happen.  The forces that cause these things are given the ability to do what they wish to do.  God does not require them to do those things.  God simply has stopped restraining them.

            And you may remember that Jesus told us all this would happen.  In Matthew Six, Jesus says, “you will hear of wars and rumors of wars... Such things must happen...Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.”  Jesus told the disciples all this.  But Jesus told them one other thing.  Jesus told them, “Do not be alarmed...Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved.”

            These things must happen.  We run into that phrase time and time again.  In Revelation, in Ecclesiastes, in Matthew, in other places.  These things must happen.  Again, in some way, a way that does not always make sense to us, these things apparently are all part of God’s plan.  This is the way it needs to go.

            Why?  We don’t know.  We could speculate.  In part, I suspect it has to do with some of the qualities of God that we tend to ignore.  You know, we like to think about God as being a loving, caring, forgiving, compassionate God.  And that’s all true.  God is all of those things.  But what we don’t like to think about is that those things are not all God is.  We don’t like to think about God’s wrath.  We don’t like to think about God’s judgment.  Now don’t get me wrong--I’m not saying God is up in heaven with a big red pen, just waiting to catch us making a mistake so God can punish us.  But Jesus spoke about a day of judgment, and so does the book of Revelation.  And we forget that at our eternal peril.

            I suspect God’s righteousness, God’s justice, God’s holiness, are all tied it up in why these bad things must happen.  That’s not a full explanation, and I don’t intend it to be.  Only God knows that full explanation.  God just told us that these things must happen, and if we believe in God then we don’t have much choice but to accept that.

            It sounds kind of scary, when we think about all these bad things happening.  That’s one of the reasons we don’t like to think about God’s judgment--it scares us.  We know, deep down, that we’re not the people we should be.  We try to hide it, a lot of times.  We try to pretend that we’re pretty good.  We try to convince ourselves that what we’re doing is okay, that we’re doing the best we can.  After all, we tell ourselves, God does not expect us to be perfect.  God knows we’re going to mess up.  It’s okay.

            But deep down, we know it’s not okay.  I mean, we may be pretty good, in human terms.  But we know we could do better.  God does know that we cannot be perfect, but God also knows that very few of us are truly doing the best we can.  Most of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, know we have plenty of room for improvement.  Most of us have lots of times when we don’t follow God as well as we should.  We don’t trust God the way we should.  We don’t love our neighbors the way we should.  We know how unworthy of God’s love and forgiveness we are.  No matter how many excuses we try to make for ourselves, deep down, we know.  And we know that God knows, too.

            And so, when we think about God’s judgment, we get scared.  But we don’t have to be.  The disciples were probably scared, too, when Jesus started talking about all this stuff in the gospel of Matthew.  But remember what Jesus told them.  “Do not be alarmed...whoever stands firm to the end will be saved.”

            That’s what it comes down to.  Standing firm in our faith to the end.  Not making excuses for ourselves, but repenting of our sins and asking for forgiveness.  Not being perfect people, but standing firm in our faith.  Continuing to believe in God, no matter how many bad things happen.  Continuing to believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, no matter how desperate the situation may be.  Continuing to love our neighbor, even when our neighbor does not seem to deserve our love.  Standing firm in our faith, no matter what.

            Because the worse things get, the more tempting it is to give up on God.  And the worse things get, the more the world tries to get us to give up on God.  And the worse things get, the more Satan tempts us to turn away from God.  

            But God is always there.  No matter how bad things get, God is always there.  No matter how bad things get, Jesus Christ is still the Savior.  The same Christ who was worthy to open the seals and allow these terrible things will, in the end, triumph over them.  And because of that, you and I do not need to be alarmed.  We don’t need to be scared.  All we need to do is what Jesus said.  Stand firm in our faith.  If we do that, we will be saved.  We will have eternal life.

            God has allowed some bad things to happen.  And God is going to allow still more.  We don’t know why.  But we do know that we don’t have to be scared.  If we stand firm in our faith, we will be able to stand up to God’s judgment.  And we will be saved.

           

 

The Only Way

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, August 28, 2022.  The Bible verses used are John 6:53-71.

            There are several times in the gospels in which Jesus says that salvation can only be found through faith in Him.  In John Fourteen, verse six, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  In John Three, verse eighteen, He says, “Whoever believes in [the Son] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the one and only Son.”

            We have another example of it in our Bible reading for today.  Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

            This is one of the things that can put some people off of Christianity.  It sounds discriminatory.  It sound self-righteous.  Its sounds arrogant.  How can you Christians say that your faith is the only one that leads to heaven?  How can you act like you’re the only ones who have it right, and everybody else is wrong?  What an elitist, sanctimonious thing to say.

            A lot of people have a hard time with what Jesus said.  Even people who claim to be Christians have a hard time with it.  A poll taken last year showed that nearly seventy percent of people who described themselves as born-again Christians did not believe that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.  I’ve known pastors who don’t believe it.

            Now, a part of this may be well-intentioned.  I mean, I know people who don’t believe Jesus Christ is the Savior.  I suspect you do, too.  And the thing is, some of them are what we would call “good people”.  I don’t want to believe they won’t be in heaven.  I want there to be some loophole, some way that they can get to heaven without believing in Jesus Christ.

            The problem with that is that Jesus does not give us that loophole.  Jesus did not say, “No one comes to the Father except through Me, unless you’re a really good person, then you can get in anyway.”  He did not say, “I am the way, but if you’re a really good person there are other ways.”  Jesus said belief in Him is the only way to heaven.  Period.  End of sentence.  End of paragraph.

            It’s a hard teaching.  A lot of people don’t want to accept it.  A lot of people don’t accept it.  But the thing about God’s truth is that it remains true whether we accept it or not.  Our opinions about it really don’t matter.  I can wish that the sun rose in the west, but it’s going to keep rising in the east.  I can wish that people did not have to age, but we’re all going to keep aging.  And I can wish that people I know who don’t believe in Jesus would go to heaven, but they’re not going to.  Not because I say so, but because Jesus himself said so.

            It’s a hard teaching.  But it was a hard teaching in Jesus’ time, too.  In fact, some of Jesus’ disciples said those exact words, in verse sixty of our Bible reading for today.  The main disciples, the twelve, did not say it, but other people who were also following Jesus did.  

And many of them left Jesus because of it, just as many people do not believe today because of it.  But those who left Jesus ran into the problem Peter pointed out.  “To whom shall we go?”  

There are places to go, of course.  We can always find places to go.  We can go to other faiths, faiths that don’t sound so “exclusive”.  We can do what the nearly seventy percent did in the poll I cited earlier–continue to claim to be Christians, but come up with our own form of Christianity, a Christianity that adds in some loopholes and exceptions that Jesus did not grant.  Or, we can go nowhere.  We can believe in nothing in particular, or have just some sort of generalized belief in God that does not particularly impact our lives in any meaningful way.

            There are lots of places to go.  But Peter also pointed out the problem with all of those places.  He said of Jesus, “You have the words of eternal life.”  

            Those words of eternal life cannot come from any other place.  They cannot come from any other place.  They cannot come from any other religion.  They cannot come from any other prophet or so-called prophet.  They cannot come from a politician.  They cannot come from a celebrity.  They cannot come from within ourselves.  The words of eternal life can only come from Jesus Christ.  No other words, no matter how good they may sound, can bring eternal life.  Only the words of Jesus Christ.  Only faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            But if this is such a “hard teaching”, why was it so easy for Peter and the rest of the twelve?  Well, of course, we don’t know if it was easy.  Maybe some of them struggled with it themselves.  One of the twelve, Judas, obviously struggled with it.  But whether it was easy for them or not, they were able to accept it.  Why?  Because, again quoting Peter, “We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

            That’s what it really comes down to.  Do we believe that Jesus is the Holy One of God?  Because if we do, then we have no choice but accept the things he said as true.  We have no choice but to accept those “hard teachings”, whether we like them or not.  The Holy One of God would not lie to us.  The Holy One of God would not make things up.  The Holy One of God would not make claims about himself that were not true.  Jesus said that belief in Him is the only way to salvation and eternal life.  So the question is whether we, like Peter, believe and know that Jesus is the Holy One of God.

            We don’t have to, of course.  As our reading for today says, many of the people who heard Jesus say these things turned away.  When that happened, Jesus turned to Peter and asked him, and the rest of the twelve, whether they were going to leave, too.  

            I wonder if He thought they might.  Maybe not–after all, He was Jesus, the Holy One of God.  He may have known they would not leave.  But even if He did, it was still their choice.  They could have left, if they’d chosen to.  But they stayed.

            And it’s our choice, too.  We can choose to leave.  We can choose to not accept Jesus’ hard teachings.  We can do what so many people do.  We can do what so many people who call themselves Christians do.  We can be “tolerant” and “inclusive”.  We can say that faith in Jesus is just one of many ways to heaven.  We can say that all religions have truth in them, and that one is just as valid as another.  We can say that–but if we do, we’re not saying what Jesus said.  And, whether we realize it or not, we are turning away from Jesus.  We are no longer following Him.  We no longer believe that Jesus is the Holy One of God.

            Maybe that sounds judgmental.  Maybe it is judgmental.  But here’s the thing:  it’s not my judgment.  My judgment does not matter.  But as I said earlier, the words of the Lord remain true no matter what I think about them.  And these are the words of the Lord.  The Lord is the one who makes that judgment, and the Lord’s judgment is the only one that matters.

            So, two things.  One, we need to make up our own minds about this.  Are we going to go along with the Twelve, with the ones who stayed with Jesus, with the ones who believe and know that Jesus is the Holy One of God?  Or, are we going to along with the other disciples, the ones who found this to be a “hard teaching” and could not accept it?  I hope, and pray, that we will all go along with the Twelve.  But it’s a choice each of us has to make.

            If we do go along with the Twelve, then here’s the second thing.  Think about those people you know who don’t believe in Jesus as the Savior.  Is there something you could do to lead them to believe?  Is there something you could do that might move them a little closer to believing?

            Maybe not.  I mean, lots of people heard the words of Jesus Himself and turned away.  If even Jesus could not lead everyone to believe, you and I cannot expect to do it.  Again, each person has to make their own choice.

            But is there a way we can try?  Is there something we could do, something we could say, any possible thing that might lead them to accept this “hard teaching” and stay with Jesus?  

            If there is, we need to try it.  Even if it’s a longshot, we need to try it.  Because, again, Jesus said belief in Him is the only way to eternal life.  If we want those people we know to be in heaven, we need to do whatever we can to bring them to that belief.

            Jesus has the words of eternal life.  He is, indeed the Holy One of God.  If we believe that, we need to do whatever we can to lead others to believe it, too.  Because, when it comes to salvation, there is nowhere else to go.

 

August 27

Hal Janvrin (1892)

Peanuts Lowrey (1917)

Joe Cunningham (1931)

Jim King (1932)

Ernie Broglio (1935)

Joe McCabe (1938)

Ed Herrmann (1946)

Buddy Bell (1951)

Mike Maddux (1961)

Brian McRae (1967)

Jim Thome (1970)

Jose Vidro (1974)

Jordy Mercer (1986)

A. J. Achter (1988)

Catcher Joseph Robert McCabe played for the Twins in 1964.  He was born in Indianapolis, went to high school in Lebanon, Indiana, and attended Purdue University.  He was signed as a free agent by the then Washington franchise in 1960.  He did not hit with power, even in the minors, but was up and down as far as batting average; for example, he hit .309 in 1962 in AAA Vancouver, but .216 in 1963 for AAA Dallas-Ft. Worth.  Despite that, McCabe began 1964 with Minnesota backing up Earl Battey.  He appeared in fourteen games, starting three of them.  He went 3-for-19 with two RBIs.  Sent to AA Charlotte for the remainder of the season, McCabe was traded to the new Washington franchise after the season for Ken Retzer.  He appeared in fourteen more games for the Senators in 1965 with similar results, although he did hit a home run.  His playing career ended after the 1965 season.  He then became an airline pilot and according to wikipedia is the only person to have both played in the major leagues and have piloted large commercial airlines for major carriers.  He was inducted into the Purdue Intercollegiate Hall of Fame in September of 2016.  At last report, Joe McCabe was living in Indianapolis.

First baseman/designated hitter James Howard Thome played for the Twins from 2010-2011.  He was born in Peoria, Illinois, went to high school in Bartonville, Illinois, and was drafted by Cleveland in the thirteenth round in 1989.  He did little in rookie ball that year (when he played shortstop), but then was shifted to third base and came on strong:  he hit .340 with 16 homers in a 1990 season split between rookie and Class A and batted .319 (although with only seven homers) in a 1991 campaign split between AA and AAA.  He made his big league debut as a September call-up in 1991 at age 21 and was in the majors for about two months in 1992.  In 1993 he hit .332 with 25 homers and an OPS of 1.026 at AAA Charlotte.  That was enough for him to leave the minors behind for good, but the Indians apparently still did not realize what they had, as Thome shared third base in 1994 with Alvaro Espinoza and Rene Gonzales.  He hit 20 home runs in 321 at-bats that season, the first of twelve consecutive years and sixteen of seventeen in which he hit at least twenty home runs.  He also had nine consecutive years and twelve out of thirteen in which he hit over thirty homers, and four consecutive years and five out of six in which he hit over forty home runs.  He became the regular third baseman for the Indians in 1995 and 1996, moving to first in 1997.  He remained a regular with Cleveland through 2002, making the all-star team three times, getting MVP consideration five times, and finishing in the top seven in MVP voting three times.  He became a free agent after that season and signed with Philadelphia for 2003.   He was with the Phillies for three seasons, getting MVP consideration in two of them and making another all-star team.  He was injured much of 2005 and was traded to the White Sox after the season.  Thome became a full-time DH in 2006 and continued to hit, making another all-star team and again receiving MVP consideration.  He started to slip in 2008, and in August of 2009 to the Dodgers.  A free agent after that season, he signed with Minnesota, where he was a part-time DH and pinch hitter.  He hit his six hundredth home run in 2011, and was a productive player for the Twins when healthy, hitting .266/.387/.562 in 482 at-bats.  He was traded to Cleveland on in late August of 2011 for a player to be named later.  A free agent after the season, he signed with Philadelphia.  Used mostly as a pinch-hitter there, he was still productive in limited playing time.  He was traded to Baltimore in late June, was used as a DH, and again was productive in limited playing time.  A free agent after the season, he did not sign with anyone.  He became a special assistant to the general manager for the White Sox in July of 2013 and is also an analyst for MLB Network.  His career numbers are .276/.402/.554, for an OPS of .956.  He hit 612 home runs.  He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018.  He also has a statue outside the Cleveland Indians stadium and has been inducted into the Philadelphia Phillies Wall of Fame.  That the Twins, for whom he played less than two full seasons, held a night in his honor shows the high regard in which he is held.  We can safely say that Gentleman Jim had a Hall of Fame playing career and, from all reports, is a Hall of Fame person.

Right-handed reliever Adam Joseph Achter appeared in eighteen games for the Twins from 2014-2015.  He was born in Toledo, went to high school in Oregon, Ohio, attended Michigan State, and was drafted by the Twins in the forty-sixth round in 2010.  He was a starter in Beloit in 2011 but has been a reliever the rest of his career.  The move seemed to help him quite a bit--he was a pretty average starter, but has excelled as a reliever at every stop along the way.  He was promoted to Fort Myers at mid-season of 2012, started 2013 in New Britain, went to Rochester later that season, and got a September call-up in 2014.  He spent most of 2015 in Rochester, but was with the Twins for a couple of weeks in August and again got a September call-up.  The Twins waived him after the 2015 season, he was chosen by Philadelphia in November, was waived a month later, and was chosen by the Angels.  He was back-and-forth between AAA and the majors a few times in 2016, but did okay with the Angels when given the chance.  A free agent after the season, he signed with Detroit but did poorly in AA and was released in June.  He finished the season pitching for Somerset in the Atlantic League and then his playing career came to an end.  As a Twin, he was 1-1, 5.18, 1.44 WHIP in 24.1 innings (18 games).  He always pitched well in AAA, but was not able to translate that into major league success.  A. J. Achter was an assistant baseball coach for Eastern Michigan University from 2018-2021.  At last report, he was a patient care account manager for Stryker in the Detroit area.

Being Ananias

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on August 21, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Acts 9:1-20.

            The conversion of Saul is one of the most awesome stories in the Bible.  Saul of Tarses was one of the most prominent persecutors of Christians ever.  He was good at it.  I mean, really good.  And he enjoyed it.  He loved it.  He thought his purpose in life was to persecute Christians.  He was so dedicated to persecuting Christians that he actually went to the high priest to get permission to go to Damascus and arrest any Christians he could find and take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

            On the way, of course, Saul met Jesus.  He was blinded by the light of the Lord.  Eventually Saul’s sight was restored, he was baptized, and he immediately began to preach that Jesus is the Son of God.

            It’s a remarkable story.  But you know who gets overlooked in this story?  Ananias.  The man who restored Saul’s sight.  Did you even know his name, before we read the story tonight?  Maybe you did, I don’t know.  In all honesty, I’m not sure I’d have remembered his name.  But he plays a pivotal role in the story of Saul’s conversion.

            The only place the name Ananias appears in the Bible is in the book of acts.  Oddly enough, Acts also references two other Ananiases.  One is in Acts Five, where an Ananias and his wife Sapphira lie to Peter about the sale price of some land and are struck down.  The other is in Acts Twenty-three and Twenty-four, where Ananias is the name of the high priest.  But the Ananias we’re talking about tonight is in the Bible only in Acts Nine.  Well, Paul references him in Acts Twenty-two, when he’s re-telling the story of his conversion.  But our Ananias is in the Bible for only one thing:  restoring sight to Saul.

            We don’t know much about Ananias.  He obviously lived in Damascus.  He was a disciple of Jesus Christ.  In Acts Twenty-two, Paul tells us that Ananias was “a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there.”  

But that’s really all we’re told about him.  We assume he did not hold any religious office.  If he had been a priest or part of the ruling council or something, we presumably would’ve been told that.

As it seems like happens so often in these Bible stories, Ananias is having just an ordinary day.  He’s doing whatever he did all day–we’re not told what Ananias did for a living, but presumably whatever it was, he was doing it.  And all of a sudden, he had a vision.  The Lord was speaking to him.

Think about what that would be like.  You’re going about your day.  You’re doing the things you do.  And all of a sudden you get this vision, and the Lord is speaking to you.  To you.

How would you react?  Would you freak out?  Would you think you were hallucinating?  I mean, even if you could accept that it really was the Lord, it would still be quite a deal, right?  Would you be scared?  Would you wonder, why me?  I mean, really think about it.  What would it be like, to all of a sudden, out of the blue, have this vision of the Lord, speaking to you?

Well, the way this is written, Ananias pretty much took it in stride.  He has no doubt that this is the Lord speaking to him, and he does not hesitate.  Ananias simply answers, “Yes, Lord.”

The Lord tells him to go where Saul is and restore his sight.  And that’s where Ananias objects.  We don’t know what was behind his objection–whether he was scared, whether he simply could not believe God was telling him to go help this man who had been persecuting Christians, or what.  But Ananias objects.  He says, hey, God, I heard about this guy.  I know who he is.  He’s the sworn enemy of Christians.  You really want me to go to him?  You really want me to help him?

And of course, God says yes.  I want you to go to him and help him.  God says, “This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.”

            We’re not told what Ananias thought about that.  I would have to think he wondered about it, at least a little.  But regardless, he did what the Lord told him to do.  He went to Saul, restored his sight–with the Lord’s power, of course–and Saul began to preach that Jesus is the Son of God.

            So why am I going through all this?  Why am I talking so much about Ananias, this guy who most people don’t even remember?  This guy who did this one thing, and then was never heard from again?

            Well, I think a lot of us are kind of like Ananias, in a some ways.  We’re followers of the Lord, or at least we try to be.  I don’t know if any of us would call ourselves “devout”, but we would say we’re doing the best we can.  

            And for the most part, we do it quietly.  Maybe people know we’re Christians–I certainly hope they do–but we don’t make a big deal of our faith.  We just do what we do, trying to do what’s right.

            And we wonder, sometimes, if what we do makes any difference.  We wonder if anybody notices what we do, and if they did notice whether anyone would care.  Not that we’re doing it for applause or anything.  It’s just that, well, we’d like to know that somehow, what we do matters.  We’d like to know that, in some way, something is made better because of us.  

            We’d like to know that, but most of the time, we don’t.  And so, all we can do is just keep going.  Just keep going, just keep trying, just keep doing our best.  And trust that, somehow, in some way, God is going to use what we do for something, even if we don’t know when or how.

            We’re not told this, but I suspect that’s how Ananias felt, sometimes.  He was trying his best to follow God, to observe the law, to do what he was supposed to do.  And he wondered if anyone noticed or cared.  He wondered if his life was making any difference at all.

And then, all of a sudden, his chance came.  He got a vision from the Lord, and he was told this one thing to do.  It was not a hard thing, although it may have been a little scary because of who Saul was.  All he did was place his hands on Saul and say a few words.  But what he did was an important part of the conversion of Saul.  It was one of the things that led to Saul eventually becoming known as Paul, the first and maybe still the greatest Christian evangelist ever.  This little thing that Ananias did played a part in changing the world.

            We don’t know what happened to Ananias after that.  We never hear from him again.  Did he know that what he’d done would be remembered forever?  Probably not.  He probably just went back to whatever his job was and kept living the life he’d been living.  Maybe, years later, if he lived long enough, he heard about what Saul, now known as Paul, was doing, and was pleased that he’d had some small part in his conversion.  Or maybe not.  But the chances are that Ananias’ life did not particularly change because of this.

            And so we think, well, this is all well and good, but how does it apply to me?  I have not gotten a vision from the Lord.  I’m not likely to ever get a vision from the Lord.  I mean, good for Ananias and all, but what’s it got to do with my life?

            And we’re probably right.  We probably will never get a vision from the Lord.  I mean, you never know–Ananias probably never thought he’d get a vision from the Lord, either, until it happened.  So it’s always possible.

            But even if we don’t, this should still give us confidence that we make a difference.  Because after all, what did Ananias do?  Hardly anything.  Put his hands on someone.  Say a few words.  Anybody could’ve done that.  And yet, look at the difference that this little thing made in the history of the world.

            Anybody could’ve done what Ananias did–but he actually did it.  And that’s the point.  The things we do might seem like little things.  We might think, well, anybody could do what I do.  And that may be true.  Anybody could–but somebody actually has to.  Somebody has to be the one who actually does it.  And it’s up to each of us to be that somebody.  That somebody who does the little things.  The somebody who does things that anybody could do, but that somebody has to be the one who actually does them.  You and I need to be that somebody.

            The little things we do, do make a difference.  We may never see the difference.  We may never know that they made any difference at all.  But they do.  And sometimes, those little things we do make all the difference in the world.

            So keep going.  Keep doing the best you can.  Stay faithful to God.  Serve God.  Show love to God.  Show love to others.  Do the little things that need to be done.  They do make a difference.  And who knows?  If God so wills, they may change the world.

 

Heaven

The message given in the Sunday morning service in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, August 21, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Revelation 4:1-11.

            A belief in heaven is one of the most basic Christian beliefs.  We believe that, if we have faith in Jesus Christ, we will have salvation and eternal life.  And of course, we believe that eternal life will be in heaven with the Lord.

            But while a belief in heaven is one of the most basic Christian beliefs, it is also one of the most mysterious Christian beliefs.  What, exactly, is heaven?  Where, exactly, is heaven?  What does heaven look like?  What do we look like when we’re there?  What, if anything, will we do there?  We want to be able to picture heaven, somehow, but it’s really hard to do.

            The classic cartoons, of course, have us sitting on clouds, wearing wings.  That’s probably not how it works.  Some people believe we’ll see our loved ones in heaven when we die, and that’s certainly possible, at least if they, too, believe in Jesus as the Savior.  Some people believe we’ll see our pets, too–dogs, cats, horses, etc., and I cannot say that’s wrong.  Some people think of heaven as going home, going to the place where we belong, and I cannot say that’s wrong, either.

            Some people believe that heaven is a place of eternal rest, where we won’t really have to do anything.  Some people believe that, in heaven, we’ll be able to do the things we enjoy doing, the things we love to do.  And again, I cannot say any of that is wrong, too.

            But there is one thing I’m pretty sure we’ll do when we get to heaven.  We will worship God.  We will bow down before God and give Him our complete and total worship and praise.  In fact, I think we’ll be totally awestruck when we are in the presence of God.  And that brings me to our Bible reading for today.

            We’re told that there are four living creatures around the throne of God.  Leave aside their appearance–while it’s interesting, it’s not what I want to talk about today.  Also leave aside what it is they represent.  They’re obviously exalted, special beings, but the point for today is not who they are but what they do.  We’re told that “day and night, they never stop saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”  We’re also told that they “give glory, honor, and thanks to him who lives on the throne and who lives for ever and ever.”

            And then we’re told about the twenty-four elders.  Again, they’re obviously special, exalted beings, but who they are and what they represent is not the point for today.  The point for today is that whenever the four living creatures do what they do, the twenty-four elders lay their crowns before the throne.  And they say, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive all glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

            These creatures are given a special position in heaven.  They are the beings in closest proximity to God.  And we’re told that what they do, constantly, day and night, is give glory and honor and praise and thanks to God.  If that’s what they do, then how much more will we, we common, ordinary, weak, fallen, broken human beings, want to constantly give glory and honor and praise and thanks to God?

            And maybe you think, well, gee, that sounds pretty boring.  All we’re going to do in heaven is give glory and honor and praise and thanks to God?  That’s it?  We’re not going to get to have any fun?  We’re not going to be able to rest and relax?  We’re not going to be able to visit with our loved ones?  All we’re going to do, all day and all night, is give glory and honor and praise and thanks to God?

            Well, I don’t know that it’s the only thing we’ll do.  There are Bible verses that indicate that we do things to serve God in heaven, too.  I think that’s quite likely, that God will have things for us to do that serve Him while we’re in heaven.

            And maybe you still think, you mean, that’s it?  We praise God and we serve God in heaven, and that’s all.  Again, don’t we get to have any fun?  Don’t we get to rest and relax?  Don’t we get to do things we enjoy doing?  We’re going to serve God and we’re going to praise God, and that’s it?  That does not sound much like heaven to me.  It sounds boring, if you want to know the truth.

            But it won’t be.  It won’t be boring at all.  You see, no one’s going to force us to do these things.  God’s not going to say, “Serve Me and worship Me and give Me glory and honor and praise and thanks or else I’ll kick you out of heaven and send you to hell.”  That’s not how this works at all.  God never forced us to do these things on earth.  Why would He force us to do these things in heaven?  No, the reason we’ll constantly do these things in heaven is because they’re all we’ll want to do.  

            You see, on earth, we really cannot fully understand everything that God is.  Our words fail us.  Our minds fail us.  Our imaginations fail us.  God is completely beyond our comprehension.

            Think about all the things we say about God.  God is almighty.  God is all-powerful.  God is all-seeing.  God is all-knowing.  God is all-wise.  God is everywhere at once.  God is in the past, present, and future at once.  God is in heaven and on earth at once.  And yet, for all these things that God is, God is also all-loving.  God is all-caring.  God is all-compassionate.  God is all-gracious.  God is all-merciful.  God is all-forgiving.  But yet, God is also the one who will execute judgment, on us and on all the world.  And that’s just the beginning.  We could go on and on and on about all the things God is, and we still could never get it all said.

            And so, as human beings, we tend to minimize God.  We tend to bring God down to our level.  That’s not a bad thing, necessarily.  There’s an extent to which we have to do that if we’re going to relate to God at all.  And God does want us to be able to relate to Him, because God does love us.  And so, when we think of God as our friend, our guide, our companion, those are not bad things.  They’re necessary things, so that we can have the relationship with God that God wants us to have.

            But at the same time, if we over-emphasize those aspects of God, we lose some of those other things we’ve talked about.  We forget about the majesty and power of God.  We forget about the sheer awesomeness of God.  And that can lead us to start questioning God, to start doubting God, to start thinking we have the right to tell God what to do, rather than respecting the wisdom of God.

            But in heaven, we won’t have that problem.  We will be in the actual presence of God.  All of those aspects of God, the sheer grandeur and majesty and magnificence of God, will be right there in front of us.  The glory of God will hit us right between the eyes.

            And when we see that, and feel that, I think the only thing we’ll think about, the only thing that will enter our minds, is how fortunate we are, how blessed we are, how just plain lucky we are that God allows us into His holy presence.  We will feel so unworthy, and yet so happy, that God has just let us be around Him, has just allowed us to be there with Him and feel the incredible love God has for us.

            And feeling that, the only thing we’ll want to do is express our gratitude and thanks to God.  Thankful that we can be in heaven.  Thankful that we can feel that total love, that total joy, that total peace.  Thankful that, as far above and beyond us as God is, God still loves us so much that He has allowed us into His holy presence to feel that incredible love.  And we’ll be eager to serve God, not because God is forcing us to, but because we’re so grateful to God that we’ll want to do something to express our thanks to God in some sort of tangible way.

            I don’t know all the details of what heaven is like.  I don’t know where it is, or if it’s even in a physical place as we know that term.  I don’t know what it looks like.  I don’t know what we’ll look like.  There are all kinds of things about heaven that I don’t know.

            But I know that we’ll be in the awesome presence of our awesome God.  And I know that we will feel incredibly good, incredibly grateful, and incredibly loved, when we are in that awesome presence.  And feeling that, we will automatically give God thanks and praise and glory and honor.  Not because we have to.  But because there is nothing else we will want to do.