Dog Days

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, October 9, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Luke 7:36-50.

            Everyone loves the underdog.  That’s what we always say, right?  Everyone roots for the underdog.

            We say that, but is it really true?  Nationwide, which baseball team has the most fans? It’s the New York Yankees, the team that’s won the most championships.  Who’s the most popular NFL team?  It’s the Green Bay Packers, the team that has won the most championships.  We may we root for the underdog in a particular game, but when it comes time to actually pick a favorite team, we tend to choose on one the top dogs.  Our favorite teams tend to be the teams that usually win.

            As Christians, of course, we’re supposed to love everyone.  Top dogs, underdogs, middle dogs, all dogs.  All people, in other words.  That’s what Jesus told us to do.  And that’s what Jesus did.

            And yet, Jesus did often stick up for the underdogs, rather than the top dogs.  Think about it.  Who were the top dogs of Jesus’ day?  They were the religious leaders, right?  They were the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and the teachers of the law.  And who did Jesus usually get into arguments with?  That’s right, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and the teachers of the law.  Jesus did not try to flatter the top dogs.  He did not even try to get along with them.  Often, Jesus fought against them.

            Who were the underdogs of Jesus’ day?  That’s right, they were the “tax collectors and sinners”.  They were the sick and the blind and the deaf and the lame.  They were the people who were threatened with being stoned.  They were the people who were looked down on by “proper” society, sometimes because of what they’d done but sometimes through no fault of their own.  Those were the people Jesus spent time with.  Those were the people Jesus stuck up for.  Those were the people Jesus worked hardest to save.

            And we have an example of that in our story from the gospel of John.  Jesus, for a change, is spending some time with a top dog.  He’s been invited to have dinner with a Pharisee.  So Jesus is sitting there in the Pharisee’s house, and here comes a woman who, we’re told, “lived a sinful life”.  It sounds like she was not invited to the Pharisee’s house.  She found out that Jesus was going to be there and crashed the party.  She brought with her an expensive jar of perfume.

            She comes up to Jesus, and she’s overcome with emotion.  She starts crying.  She wets his feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair, kisses his feet, and pours the perfume on them.

            The Pharisee sees this, and he’s appalled.  He probably thought about kicking this woman out of the house.  But since Jesus does not seem to mind, the Pharisee does not do anything.  Still, he thinks, if this Jesus was all he’s cracked up to be, he’d know what kind of woman this person is and would not let her anywhere near him.

            Of course Jesus knew exactly who this woman was.  And Jesus knew who the Pharisee was, too.  But I want us to think about both of them.

First, the woman.  All we’re told about her is that she “lived a sinful life”.  That’s it.  We’re not given any more details than that.  We’re not told what it was about her life that made it sinful.  We could guess.  I think, though, that there’s a reason we’re not given any other details about this woman.

I think we’re not given any other details because what this woman’s sins were is irrelevant.  What’s important is that this woman was a sinner and she knew she was a sinner.  And that’s why she was so overcome with emotion in the presence of Jesus.

We don’t know how much she really understood about Jesus.  We don’t know if she understood that he was the divine Son of God.  We don’t even know if she’d have understood what that meant.  What she did know was that Jesus was someone special.  She knew that Jesus was greater than she was.  She knew that she did not deserve to be in Jesus’ presence.  But yet, she felt like she had to come.  She had to be there.  Even though she had no right to be there, even though she knew Jesus was far above and beyond what she was, she still needed to be there, in Jesus’ presence.

Now let’s think about who the Pharisee was.  He was one of the religious leaders.  He was the one who defined Jewish religion for other people.  He did not think he had led a sinful life.  He did not know he was a sinner.  And so, he was not overcome with emotion in the presence of Jesus.  It would never have occurred to him to think he did not deserve to be in Jesus’ presence.  In fact, he probably thought he’d done Jesus a favor by allowing Jesus to come to his house.  He probably thought he’d been very generous by allowing Jesus to eat with him.  He did not think he needed to be in Jesus’ presence.  He thought Jesus was lucky to be allowed into his presence.

Now, this is a pretty clear case of an underdog and a top dog, right?  And it’s pretty clear which is which.  So, two questions.

First, which of these people do we think we are?  Do we think we’re the person who’s lived a sinful life?  Do we think of ourselves as the person who really has no right to come into the presence of Jesus at all, but simply feel like we need to be there anyway?  Or do we think of ourselves as the Pharisee, the person who feels like we’ve done Jesus a favor by allowing Jesus to come into our presence.

Now, we know what the answer is supposed to be.  We know we’re supposed to say that we’re all sinners.  We’re supposed to say that we’ve all fallen short of who we’re supposed to be and that it’s only by God’s grace that we’re allowed into God’s holy presence.

We know that’s what we’re supposed to say.  And maybe, in our minds, we know that’s true.  But do we really feel it?  Do we really identify with the lowest of the low?  I want you to think of the lowest of the low, and I’m not going to put a picture up here because who I think of as the lowest of the low might not be the same as who you think of.  But think of the lowest of the low.  Is that really who you identify with?  Is that really who I identify with?

Again, we know we’re supposed to.  The point is, do we?  Do you?  Do I?

I want you to think about that.  And then, I want you to get to the other question.

The other question is this:  If you were Jesus—if I was Jesus—which of these people would be our favorite?  Which one would we want to spend time with?  Would we want to hang out with the underdog, with the woman who apparently everyone knew had “led a sinful life”?  Or would we want to hang out with the top dog, the Pharisee, the guy everyone in town looked up to and wanted to be on the good side of?

Again, we know what the answer is supposed to be.  We’re supposed to say that we’d rather be with the underdog.  But is that really true?

I already asked you to think of the lowest of the low.  Now, I want you to also think of someone who represents the top dog to you.  And again, I’m not going to put a picture up here because who I think of may not be the same as who you think of.  And when you think of that top dog, don’t think of someone who lied or cheated their way to the top.  Think of someone you really admire and respect, someone who you think of as a good person.  Because that’s how people thought of the Pharisees.  We look down on the Pharisees now because we know Jesus looked down on them, but that’s not how it was at the time.  People looked up to the Pharisees.  People respected the Pharisees.

Have you got the two pictures in your head?  Okay.  Now, which one would you rather be with?  Which one would I rather be with?  Would you rather be with the underdog, or the top dog?  Would I rather be with the underdog, or the top dog?

The Pharisee did not want to be around the underdog.  He did not understand why Jesus did.  In fact, he thought Jesus must not know who this woman was, because there was no way Jesus would want to be around her if he did.

But Jesus wanted to be with the underdog.  He told the Pharisee that this woman had shown love to him and the Pharisee had not.  And Jesus told the woman that her sins were forgiven.

Who are the underdogs in our community?  Do you identify with them?  Do I?  Do you want to hang around with them?  Do I?

Jesus loved everyone.  And we’re supposed to love everyone, too.  And that includes the underdogs.  So let’s stick up for the underdogs.  Let’s spend time with the underdogs.  Let’s show love to the underdogs.  

And then, let’s realize that we are underdogs.  Let’s realize that we, too, are sinners in need of forgiveness.  Let’s realize that we do not deserve to be in Jesus’ presence any more than the woman in our Bible reading did.  But let’s realize that we need to be there anyway.  And let’s realize that we—you and I—need as much as anyone to hear Jesus tell us that our sins are forgiven.

 

Are We Listening?

The print version of the message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Luke 6:20-42.

            Jesus’ most famous speech is probably what we now know as The Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus goes up onto a mountainside and talks to all the assembled people.

            What we read tonight is not, technically, the Sermon on the Mount.  That’s in Matthew.  What we read is often called the sermon on the plain.  The ideas and themes are very similar.  Some people believe that Jesus probably gave similar messages more than once.  Matthew set down the version from the mountain, Luke set down the one from the plain.  We went with the version from Luke simply the version in Matthew runs for three chapters, and there would not have been time to read it all.

            Also, we’re not going to discuss everything Jesus said in this message, because there’s just too much.  So tonight, we’re going to do kind of an overview.

            Jesus starts out with what are called the beatitudes.  These are, as you heard, blessings for certain groups of people.  And it’s obvious that the way Jesus looks at blessings is different from the way you and I usually look at them.

            When you think of something that’s a blessing, what do you think of?  Your children or grandchildren, maybe.  Your spouse, if you have one.  Enough to eat.  Rain when we need it.  Some of us consider ourselves blessed to live in this country, and to live in this beautiful part of it.  Good friends can be a blessing.

            In other words, when we think of blessings, we think of things that make us happy.  We think of things that make our lives on earth go well.  Those are what we think of as blessings.

            That’s clearly not how Jesus looks at blessings.  Look at the people Jesus calls blessed.  The poor.  The hungry.  Those who weep.  Those who are hated and rejected.

            We would not consider those people blessed, would we?  The people I’ve known who were poor, or hungry, or sad, or hated and rejected, do not seem to consider themselves blessed, either.  So what is Jesus talking about?

            And look at who Jesus says are not blessed.  He says “woe” to the rich, to those who are well-fed, to those who laugh, to those who people speak well of.  

Those are the people most of us would like to be more like, right?  We may say we don’t want to be rich, but I doubt that there are very many of us who would turn down more money.  A lot of us, definitely including me, eat more than we should.  You know I love to laugh.  And we all like people to speak well of us.  Those are the people that most of us would consider to be blessed.  And yet, Jesus has no blessing for them at all.  In fact, in regard to those people, Jesus says “woe to you”.

Jesus gives a reason for it, too.  He says that the people whom he says are blessed--the poor, the hungry, those who weep, those who are hated and rejected--will rejoice and receive their reward in heaven, because they’re being treated the way the prophets were.  And he says the people he’s has proclaimed woe to--the rich, the well-fed, those who laugh, those who are spoken well of--will have all that turned around on them, and will find out what’s it’s like to have all that taken away, because they’re being treated on earth the way the false prophets were.

The beatitudes are probably one of the best-loved parts of the Bible.  And yet, if we really look at them and think about what they say, they make us pretty uncomfortable.  We wonder what we’re supposed to do with them.  Are we supposed to try to become poor and hungry and sad and hated, just so we can have blessings in heaven?  That does not make any sense to us.  But what should we do?  How should we react to this?

I think the key to it might be in the next phrase.  Jesus says, “Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”  And then his next words are, “But to you who are listening, I say:  Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

We always skip right to the “Love your enemies” part, and that’s obviously really important.  But it’s the part right before that that I want to talk about right now.  Jesus says that he is saying these things “to you who are listening”.

I think what Jesus is saying is that those people he pronounced woe to--the rich, the well-fed, those who laugh, those who are spoken well of--are most likely not listening to anything he says anyway.  They don’t think they need to.  They have everything they want and everything they need.  And if they don’t, they think they know how to get it.  They’re not paying attention to Jesus.  They don’t think they need Jesus.  They don’t think they need God.  They think they can do it all themselves.

And on earth, maybe they can.  But not in heaven.  All this stuff they’ve accomplished on earth is not going to mean anything in heaven.  That’s why Jesus proclaims woe to them.  They think they have it all, and yet they’re missing the most important thing.  They’re missing faith in Jesus.  And because they’re missing that, they’re missing salvation.  And the saddest thing of all is that they don’t even know they’re missing it.

The people Jesus gave blessings to--the poor, the hungry, those who weep, those who are hated--those are the ones who are listening to Jesus.  In fact, they’re hanging on every word.  Because they know they need him.  They know they need what Jesus has to offer.  They know they cannot get through life without it.  They know they need unconditional love and salvation.  And they know they need to get it from Jesus, because there’s absolutely no other place, at least on earth, that they can get it from.

So where does that leave you?  And where does the leave me?  Are we hanging on every word Jesus says?  Do we know that we need what Jesus has to offer?  Or do we think we can make it on our own, without any help?

Well, we’re all here tonight.  That’s a start.  But it’s only a start.  After all, in Jesus’ day, a lot of rich people who were well thought of went to the synagogue regularly.  But they did not let anything said there impact their lives.  They came, they stayed for an hour--or however long synagogue took back then--and they went home.  They were there, but they were not listening to anything.  They certainly were not going to let the words of God change their lives in any significant way.

We’re here.  But are we listening?  Are we letting the words said here impact our lives?  And I don’t mean my words.  I mean Jesus’ words.  You can think whatever you like of my words.  Jesus’ words are the ones we need to pay attention to.

We all heard Jesus’ words.  We’ve heard them before.  Love your enemies.  Do good to those who hate you.  Bless those who curse you.  Pray for those who mistreat you.  Do to others, not as they do to you, but as you would like them to do to you.  Do not judge.  Do not condemn.  Forgive and you will be forgiven.  Give and it will be given to you.  Don’t focus on a speck in someone else’s eye when there’s a plank in your own.

Most of us have heard those words before.  But have we listened?  Are we listening now?  Are we doing what Jesus told us to do?  If not, are we going to?  Are we going to let the words of Jesus change our lives?  Or are we just going to come here, stay for an hour, and go home?

As I said, we may love the beatitudes in theory.  We may love the Sermon on the Mount in theory.  But when we really think about what Jesus said, it makes us pretty uncomfortable.  It makes me uncomfortable, too.  

The easy thing to do will be for us to sit here until the end of the service, shake hands, and then leave and go on about our business.  The easy thing to do will be to let Jesus’ words bounce off of us and keep living our lives the way we’ve been living them.  It will be easy for me to do that, too.  That will be the easy way.  But it won’t be the way that leads to God’s blessings.

Jesus has a blessing for people who they know they need him.  He has a blessing for people who know they need what Jesus has to offer.  He has a blessing for people who know they cannot get through life without him.  Jesus has a blessing for those who know they need unconditional love and salvation, and who know they need to get it from Jesus, because there’s absolutely no other place they can get it from.

If we are those people, Jesus will bless our lives.  He may or may not give us what we normally think of as a blessing.  But he will bless us with eternal life.

 

Follow Me

The print version of this morning's message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Luke 5:27-32.

            Our Bible reading for today gives us yet another example of an ordinary person, sitting around minding his own business, doing what he does every day.  And suddenly, the Lord comes along, and in a few seconds the Lord completely changes this man’s life.

            It’s amazing to me how often this happens in the Bible.  And it’s also amazing to me how matter-of-factly the Bible always tells these stories.  I mean, here’s Levi, changing his entire life to follow Jesus, and the Bible handles it in two verses.  “Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth.  ‘Follow me,’ Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.”

            That’s pretty incredible, don’t you think?  For someone to just immediately leave their entire way of life behind to follow Jesus?

            But you know, that seems to be how it worked with all of Jesus’ disciples, at least the ones we’re told about how they were called.  Jesus sees Peter and Andrew casting a net into the lake, fishing, and he says, “Come, follow me, and I will sent you out to fish for people.”  And we’re told, “At once they left their nets and followed him.”  Jesus sees James and John out in a boat with their father.  We’re told, “Jesus called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.”

            Think about that in the context of Levi.  After all, who was Levi?  Levi was a tax collector.  Tax collectors were not popular people in Jesus’ time.  I don’t suppose tax collectors have ever been popular people, really.  But Levi was a wealthy man.  Most tax collectors were, because they were allowed to charge people as much as they wanted and keep any excess over what Rome wanted.  It was not necessarily an honest way to make a living, but it was a way to get rich.  

And Levi was rich.  You can tell that because he was able to pull off this huge banquet in Jesus’ honor at barely a moment’s notice.  He must have had servants and a large room and the money to pay for all this food and wine and everything.  Levi was leaving behind an awful lot of wealth to follow Jesus.

            I wonder if, when Jesus came along, Levi know who Jesus was.  Jesus had started his ministry by this time.  He’d healed a lot of people.  He was attracting crowds.  Levi certainly might have heard of him.  He might have even been curious about him.  

            And maybe, Levi knew he needed to change his life.  We’re into speculation now, but again, think about how Levi was.  A wealthy man, but not popular.  Maybe friendless.  Maybe Levi had looked at his life and said, you know, I have all this money, but what’s it getting me?  What good is it all?  

            I wonder, too, if Jesus knew Levi before this.  I mean, as the divine Son of God, I’m sure Jesus knew who Levi was when he called him.  But had Jesus seen Levi before?  Did He know Levi had his tax collector booth in this spot?  Did He deliberately go there that day for the purpose of calling Levi?  Or was he just walking by, when suddenly He got the divine inspiration that Levi needed to be one of the twelve disciples?  

            And that makes me wonder, were the twelve disciples the first twelve people Jesus called?  Again, of those disciples that we’re given a call story for, Jesus comes up to them, says “Follow me”, and they immediately follow.  Were there people Jesus came up to, said, “Follow me”, and they said no?

            We’re not told that, but it seems like there could’ve been.  After all, in John Chapter Six, we’re told about a lot of people who had followed Jesus, and then stopped, because he was saying things that were too hard for them to accept.  In Luke Chapter Nine, we’re told about people who said they would follow Jesus, but they had to do other things first.  It seems to me that it’s at least possible that the disciples we know as the Twelve may not have been the first Twelve Jesus called.  They may have just been the first Twelve who said yes.

            What the twelve disciples did was not easy.  They left everything behind to follow Jesus.  You know, we talk sometimes about how Jesus came for the poor, but the disciples for whom we know something about their background don’t seem to have been poor.  We talk of James and John, and Simon and Andrew, as fishermen, but it’s not like they were just fishing for pleasure or for sport.  This was their business.  They were commercial fishermen.  I don’t know how good their business was, but it was good enough that they could afford the boat and nets and all that.  

            And not only that, they walked away from their families, too.  James and John left their father behind.  We know that Simon, at least, was married, so he apparently left his wife behind, too.  The twelve disciples walked away from everything to follow Jesus.  It’s not everybody who could do that.

            Now, it’s certainly possible that Jesus knew the twelve would say yes before he asked them.  But I think it’s possible that He asked some others and they said no.  Or, it’s also possible that there are some others Jesus would like to have asked, but He knew they would say no, so He did not bother to ask them.

            So you probably know where this is going.  You and I would probably consider ourselves ordinary people.  Suppose that tomorrow we’re just going about our business, doing whatever we do every day.  Maybe we’re at work.  Maybe we’re at school.  Maybe we’re out doing errands.  Whatever it is.  And all of a sudden, Jesus comes along.  And Jesus says two words:  “follow me”.

            What do we do?  Do we follow?  

            We’d like to think we would.  But would we really?  Would we walk away from everything we own?  Would we walk away even from our own family?  Would we leave everything behind, the way the twelve disciples did, to follow Jesus?

            It’s a hard question to answer.  Because the truth is that when we hear a question like that, we think of it as just theoretical.  We don’t really believe Jesus is going to come along and ask us to leave everything behind to follow Him.  And so, while we might give an answer to the question, we don’t really know what the answer is.  And we cannot really know what our answer is unless and until we’re faced with the situation, which we don’t really expect to be.

            But I still think it’s worth thinking about.  We talked last week about the kingdom of heaven being worth more than everything else in the world.  A situation like this is where we would find out if we really believe that.  I mean, we may say we believe it, and maybe we do.  But Simon and Andrew, James and John, Levi–they proved it.  They actually did give up everything to follow Jesus.

            And they did that, not really knowing all that much about Jesus.  We don’t know how much they knew, but Jesus was just starting his ministry when he called these men.  They had no idea what they were in for.  They had no idea what they were going to see.  They did not know the tremendous power Jesus had.  They did not know they were going to see Jesus do miraculous healing, feed five thousand people, and even raise someone from the dead.  They did not know they were going to hear Jesus arguing with the Pharisees and the other religious leaders and make them look like fools.  And they certainly did not know that Jesus was going to die so that they and all of us who believe in Him can have salvation and eternal life.

            You and I know a lot more about Jesus than the first disciples did.  We have the advantage of being able to read the end of the book, so to speak.  We may not know everything we’d like to know about Jesus, but we know all we need to know.  We know that He was and is the divine Son of God.  We know that faith in Him truly does lead to salvation and eternal life.  We know that the day will come when Jesus will come again, even if we don’t know when that day will be.  We know that, no matter what the world might look like right now, in the end, Jesus will win.  And we know that, if we stay faithful to Him and serve Him and love Him, we will win, too.

            Jesus calls each of us to follow Him.  What that looks like may be different for each of us, but Jesus does call each of us to follow Him.  We don’t expect Jesus to ask us to leave everything to follow Him, and maybe He won’t.  But those first disciples probably were not expecting Jesus to ask them to leave everything to follow him, either.  And He did.

            And when He did, those first disciples were able to say yes.  I don’t know whether I could say yes.  I’d really rather Jesus did not ask me to.  But if He does, my prayer is that all of us will be able to say yes.  It won’t be easy.  But it will be worth it.

 

Trust

The print version of the Sunday night message in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Luke 4:31-37.

            The events we read about tonight took place early in Jesus’ ministry.  He did not have a big reputation yet.  A lot of people had not heard about him, and those who had heard about him did not know a lot about him.

            And so, when Jesus did the things he did, people were amazed.  In fact, when people heard Jesus teach, we’re told, “They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.”  And when Jesus got a demon to come out of man, we’re told people said, “What words these are!  With power and authority he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!”  People were impressed.  They were more than impressed, they were astounded.  They’d never heard anyone teach the way Jesus taught, and they’d never seen anyone who could do the things Jesus could do.

            You and I, of course, are familiar with some of the things Jesus did.  Most of us know the basics of Jesus’ teaching–love God, love others, pray for your enemies, things like that.  And most of know that Jesus could cast out demons while he was on earth.  And we know other incredible things Jesus did–healing the sick, curing the lame, giving sight to the blind, even raising someone from the dead.  And of course, we know that Jesus himself was raised from the dead, appeared to the disciples, and eventually ascended back to heaven.

            Jesus had tremendous power.  And of course, Jesus was always clear about the fact that this power was not His own.  Jesus was using the power of God the Father.  Jesus said in John Chapter Five, Verse Thirty, “By myself I can do nothing.”  Jesus did what he did by the power of God.

            And of course, we know God has tremendous power.  God has so much power that He was able to create the entire universe and everything in it out of nothing.  And God has so much power that He was able to do that just by saying a word.  God did not have to work hard to create the universe and everything in it.  God did not have to exert Himself at all.  He just spoke a word, and boom, there it is.  Incredible power.

            Now, I realize, I have not told you anything you don’t already know.  In fact, you know more.  You know that God is good.  You know God loves you.  And God loves me.  And God loves everyone else.  And you know that God can work all things for good.  All of this stuff is stuff you know and have known for a long time.

            So here’s the question.  If we know God is good, and we know God loves us, and we know God has tremendous power–why are we so hesitant to trust God?  Why do we worry so much about how things are going to go?  Why do we always feel like we have to take care of everything ourselves, rather than just doing our best and trusting God to take care of things?

            Now, maybe those questions don’t apply to you.  Maybe you do trust God with everything.  Maybe you never worry about anything.  Maybe you have complete and total peace in your life, just doing your best and trusting God with the results.

            I hope you do.  If you do, that’s wonderful, because you really are living an awesome life.  But for a lot of us, it’s hard.  And a lot of us don’t do it.  Or, a lot of us are able to do it once in a while, but not very often, and not for very long.

            Why not?  And here’s the other thing:  on the rare occasions when we do trust God, when we do just do our best and trust God to take care of things, and God actually comes through for us–we’re amazed, just like the people in Capernaum were.  We’re astounded.  It’s like we’re thinking, wow, this God really does have the power He says he does.  He really does love us the way we’ve always heard.  God really is good after all.  It’s like a revelation to us.  We’re blown away by God actually being who we’ve always heard God is.

            Now, don’t get me wrong here.  I don’t think it’s a sin when we have trouble trusting God the way we should.  As I’ve said before God understands us better than we understand ourselves, because God made us.  God knows our faults and our failings better than we do.  I don’t think God’s going to send us to hell for this or anything.  

But I do think maybe God’s a little disappointed in us, that after all He’s done for us we still have trouble trusting Him.  And I also think it makes God a little bit sad.  God sees us putting ourselves through all this worry, all this anxiety, all this distress.  God sees us trying so frantically to do things by ourselves.  And God knows all this stuff we’re putting ourselves through is so unnecessary.  God knows we’d all be so much happier, so much more at peace in our lives, if we would just do our best and trust Him with the results.  And yet, we won’t do it.

And you know, that’s not really the right way to say it, either.  Because saying “we won’t do it” implies that we’ve made a conscious decision that we’re not going to trust God.  And that’s not true, at least no for most of us.  It’s not that we refuse to trust God.  It’s not even that we don’t want to trust God.  It’s just that, well, trusting God can be really hard sometimes.

Why is it hard?  I think it comes down to two very human traits:  arrogance and impatience.  

When I say arrogance, I don’t necessarily mean it the way we usually think of arrogance.  It’s not necessarily that we think we’re better than everyone else.  It might be that, but a lot of times, it’s not.  It’s that we think we know how things should go.  We think we know what’s best and what’s right.  And a lot of times, we don’t think that in a selfish way.  It’s just that, well, we convince ourselves that what we want is the best, not for ourselves, but for everyone involved.  We cannot see a possible downside for anyone.  And so, when things don’t go the way we’ve convinced ourselves that they should, we feel like, well, God’s not getting this done.  I’ve got to make it happen myself.  I’ve got to force it to happen.  This has to be what God wants, so I’ve got to do whatever I’ve got to do to bring it about.

It’s a lack of trust in God, of course.  But the point is that, at the time, we often don’t see it that way.  We’ve convinced ourselves that we’re doing what God wants us to do.  It simply does not occur to us that we’ve become arrogant about it, and that God has a different plan from our supposedly “perfect” plan.

And the other thing, of course, is our impatience.  We want God to act right now.  We don’t want to wait.  We don’t even want to wait until tomorrow, much less next year or next month or even next week.  And so, again, when God does not act when we think God should, we try to force the issue.  We try to make it happen right now.  And again, we convince ourselves that we’re doing what God wants us to do, that we need to be the ones that make things happen, rather than waiting for God’s timing.

Again, God understands all this.  I don’t think God’s mad at us for it.  But God knows that our lives would be so much better, that we’d have so much more peace in our lives, if we simply did our best and trusted Him to take care of things.

So what should we do?  Well, pray, for one thing.  And yes, I know, that’s always the pastor’s answer for everything.  But the thing is, it really is at least part of the answer for pretty much everything.  We need to ask for God’s help.  We need to ask God to help us trust Him, even when it seems to us like things are not going the way they should or that God is not acting when we think God should.  We need to ask God to help us trust in His wisdom and His timing.

But it also might help us to look through the Bible and look at all the times God used His power, and all the times He used it to help people.  From the creation of the universe to the parting of the Red Sea to Jesus’ miracles to everything in-between.  Over and over, God uses His power for the good of those who love Him.

And if that does not help, I have one more suggestion.  Think of all the times God has been there for you in your life.  Because if you really think about it, I suspect there have been several of them.  Times when you were not sure how things could possibly work out, but somehow they did.  Times when you did not think you could possibly get everything done that you needed to do, but somehow you did.  Times when you thought a relationship could not be repaired, but somehow it was.  Times when you were in trouble, and you could not see a way out, and somehow a way out appeared.  And that’s just a few examples–we could go on and on.

            When that happened, that was God using His power to help you.  Maybe you did not realize it at the time.  Maybe you’ve never thought about it that way.  But it was.  It was God using His power to help you.  If you look back at your life honestly, I suspect you can see time after time when God was there for you and helped you.  

            If God has helped you before, God will help you again.  The God of the universe, the God of Israel, the God through whom Jesus worked His miracles, will be there for you.  The God who loves you, the God who uses His power for good, will be there for you and will help you through whatever it is you need to be helped through.

            We should never take God’s power or God’s love for granted, but we should not be surprised by it, either.  Time and time again, God has shown that we can trust Him.  So lets put our worries and our fears and our anxiety aside.  Let’s do our best, put our trust in God, and be at peace.

 

The Kingdom of Heaven

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, September 25, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 13:31-33, 44-50.

            The kingdom of heaven.  Jesus uses that phrase over and over again in our reading for today.  The kingdom of heaven.  What does that phrase mean?  What is the “kingdom of heaven”?

            Well, let’s look at  it.  First of all, if there’s a kingdom, there has to be a king, right?  And of course, that king is God.  God is the king of the kingdom of heaven.  God in all of His forms–the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

            But what, really, is the kingdom of heaven?  Well, Jesus tells us a few things about it.  For one thing, the kingdom of heaven is incredibly valuable.  In fact, it’s worth everything.  He says it’s like a treasure hidden in a field.  If you find it, you’d sell everything you own to buy that field.  It would not matter how much it cost.  You’d do whatever you had to do to get that field, so you could have the treasure.

            And then, just to make sure we get it, Jesus makes the same point by using a merchant looking for fine pearls.  He says that when you find one, you’d sell everything you have to get it.  Again, it would not matter how much it cost.  You’d do whatever you had to do to get that pearl.

            In other words, the kingdom of heaven is more valuable than anything you could ever have.  It’s more valuable than anything else in the world.  It’s more valuable than everything else put together.  Gaining a place in the kingdom of heaven is so important that it should be the entire focus of our lives.

            Well, okay.  That makes sense.  I mean, if God is the kingdom of heaven, and if God is everything we believe He is–the all-powerful, almighty, all-loving, all-caring, all-compassionate, all-everything God–then getting a place in the kingdom of heaven would be incredibly important.  It would be important enough that, once we found it, we would give up everything we have to get it.

            But that kind of begs the question.  How do we find it?  I mean, these examples say what to do after we find the treasure.  But how do we find it in the first place?  How do we find this kingdom of heaven?

            Well, let’s look at something else Jesus said about the kingdom of heaven.  He said the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.

            So what does that tell us about the kingdom of heaven?  Well, what is yeast?  Yeast is something that, just by itself, is pretty much worthless right?  An ounce of dried yeast costs very little.  And, as long as the yeast just sits in a jar or something, it really is not doing anything.  In other words, yeast is not valuable for what it is.  Yeast is valuable for what it does.

            So what does that tell us?  Is the kingdom of heaven worthless?  That does not make any sense.  Is the kingdom of heaven valuable for what it does?  Well, maybe.  But what does that mean?  What does the kingdom of heaven actually do?

            Well, let’s look at the very first thing Jesus said in our reading.  Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.  It starts out really small, but when it grows, it becomes huge.  It grows into a tree so big that birds can come and perch in its branches.

            Okay.  So the kingdom of heaven grows?  Does that make sense?  I mean, when you really look at these things, you can see why the disciples sometimes got frustrated with Jesus for speaking in parables so often.  Jesus, why do you have to be so mysterious all the time?  Why can you not just come out and say what you mean?  Why do you make us work so hard to figure out what you’re getting at?  I mean, it helps keep pastors employed, but other than that, why do you have to beat around the bush so much?

            Well, I cannot answer that for Jesus.  But I can tell you this–we cannot understand Jesus by just taking little snippets of what he said.  After all, Jesus said a lot of things, and sometimes he assumed his audience would remember the things he’d said earlier and use those things to explain what he was saying now.  And sometimes he would later on explain some of the things he was saying now.

            I think that, to fully understand what Jesus is saying about the kingdom of heaven in this passage, we need to look at what Jesus says in John Chapter Seventeen, verse twenty-one.  The Pharisees are asking Jesus about the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is not something that can be observed.  You cannot say “here it is” or “there it is”.  Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is within you.

            Now, that does not mean that we are all our own gods.  It does not mean we get to make our own rules and do whatever we want.  What it means is that God’s Holy Spirit exists within each of us.  And if we open ourselves up to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit, we will see Him at work in our lives.  And once we see God’s Holy Spirit at work in our lives, we will realize how important it is and will do anything we can to get it.

            God’s Holy Spirit takes root in our hearts.  He starts small.  We may not even realize what God’s Holy Spirit is doing at first.  We may not even realize God’s Holy Spirit is doing anything.  But eventually, we start to feel God’s Holy Spirit grow within us.  We start feeling more love in our hearts.  We start treating other people better.  We start to have more patience.  We start to feel more peace in our lives.  And as that starts, we realize that it feels pretty good.  We want more of that.  We want to feel more love, have more patience, feel more peace, do more for other people.  The Holy Spirit grows and grows inside of us, until it becomes so big that everyone can see it, without us having to say a word about it.

            And like yeast in dough, we cannot keep the Holy Spirit separate from the rest of our lives.  When God’s Holy Spirit is working in us, it works in everything we do.  God’s Holy Spirit changes every aspect of our lives.  There is no part of our lives we can keep God’s Holy Spirit away from.  

            And when you think about it, there’s not part of our lives that we will want to keep God’s Holy Spirit away from.  Have you ever had a time when you felt like you were totally in tune with God’s Holy Spirit, like you were exactly where God wanted you to be and were doing exactly what God wanted you to do?  If you have, you know what an awesome feeling it is.  It truly is the treasure that’s worth everything we have.  It is the pearl that’s finer than any other pearl in the world.  There’s no greater feeling than having God’s Holy Spirit working in us.  God’s Holy Spirit working in us means that we don’t have to worry about how things are going to go.  In fact, it means that we don’t have to worry about anything.  All we need to do is do our best to follow where God’s Holy Spirit leads us.  That puts God in control, and not us.  And when God is in control, we can be at peace.  We’re leaving things in God’s hands, and there are no better hands to leave things in than God’s hands.

            But we do need to note this.  Jesus does not end his statement on this high note.  Jesus ends his statement with a warning.  He says God’s Holy Spirit is like a fisherman who has a whole net full of fish.  He keeps the good fish, and throws the bad fish away.  Jesus then says, “This is how it will be at the end of the age.  The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

            We don’t like to think about that part.  But we ignore it at our peril.  And we ignore it at other people’s peril, too.  Jesus tells us how wonderful God’s Holy Spirit is, and how awesome it is to have God’s Holy Spirit in us, but he also lets us know that not everyone does, and not everyone will.  And there are obviously severe consequences when we don’t.

            The kingdom of heaven is within us.  But we need to open ourselves up to God’s Holy Spirit.  God never forces Himself on us.  God wants to work with us.  God wants each of us to feel the awesome feeling of being totally in tune with God’s Holy Spirit.  But God will not force that feeling on us.  If we choose to shut God’s Holy Spirit off, God will allow us to do that.  But there are consequences.  And you heard what Jesus said those consequences are.

            So let’s open ourselves up to God’s Holy Spirit.  Let’s get that awesome feeling of being totally in tune with God’s Holy Spirit.  And let’s do all we can to help others get that awesome feeling, too.  Let’s all be part of the great kingdom of heaven.

 

What's My Motivation

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on September 18, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18.

            Most of us would agree that humility is a virtue.  But in today’s society, it’s not a virtue we value a whole lot.  We’d say we do.  We pay lip service to humility.  But when we look around, we don’t see a lot of it these days.

            After all, we live in the age of the selfie.  We live in a time of self-promotion.  We’re told that we need to toot our own horn, because if we don’t, who will?  How are we going to get ahead if people don’t know what we’re doing?  We need to make sure everyone know all the good stuff we’re doing, so we get credit for it.

            And churches and pastors are not immune to that.  I like it when the conference knows the good stuff we do around here.  I like it when the community knows it, too.  That’s not necessarily wrong, to want the good stuff that’s happening in the church to be recognized, but it sure can be.  That’s especially true if we want it recognized so that people will give us credit, will pat us on the back, tell us what a good job we’re doing, rather than giving honor and glory to God.

            And you know, it’s really easy for us to justify this sort of thing to ourselves.  Not just in the church, but in every aspect of life.  We tell ourselves that we want people to know what we’re doing so we can set a good example.  We tell ourselves we want people to see our Christian faith in action, so it can bring them to Christ.  What could be a better motive than that?  And if people give us some credit, too, well, we cannot stop them.  That’s just the way it goes.

            There’s nothing new about any of this, of course.  People did it in Jesus’ time, too.  That’s what Jesus is talking about in our Bible reading for today.

            He starts out by talking about giving to the needy.  That’s a good thing to do, right?  To give to the needy?  And of course, it is.  Jesus wants us to give to the needy.  But, he says, don’t make a show of it.  Don’t put it on facebook.  Don’t put a picture of what you’re doing on instagram.  Just do it.  Don’t be proud or self-righteous.  Be humble.

            Jesus then goes on to talk about praying in public.  Now that’s one that hits me personally.  I pray in public every week in church.  It’s part of my job.  Should we change the order of worship, so that I don’t do that?  Well, I don’t know that we need to do that.  But I, and anyone else who prays in public, needs to be careful.  We need to remember that we’re talking to God.  We’re not talking to the assembled group.  We should not be trying to send a message to the congregation in our prayers.  

            And I confess, there are probably times when I’ve done that.  Not in a bad or accusatory way, I don’t think.  But it’s tempting, especially in a prayer after the sermon, to try to sort of recap the sermon in the prayer.  And that’s not what I should be doing.  When I pray, even in church, I’m not talking to you.  I’m talking to God.  And I need to remember that.  Everyone who prays in public, under any circumstances, needs to remember that.

            Then Jesus talks about fasting.  And we tend to skip over that one, because how many of us have ever fasted?  Now, I don’t want that to come across as dismissive.  There may well be people here who have fasted.  It’s a time-honored spiritual discipline.  I’m not trying to diminish it at all.  But there are not a lot of people who do it, so we tend to not spend a lot of time talking about it.

            But there’s a common thread running through all of these things, and you probably know what it is.  Don’t do things, even good things, for show.  Don’t do them for applause.  Don’t do them so people will think highly of you.  In fact, if possible, don’t let anyone know about them.  Still do them.  But do them as quietly as possible.  Be humble.

            What’s really interesting about this is why Jesus tells us to do things this way.  It’s not that God’s going to punish us for letting people know the good things we’ve done.  God won’t send us to hell for doing that.  But God’s not going to give us any credit for it, either.

            Let’s take giving to the needy as an example.  Giving to the needy under any circumstances is a good thing to do.  Regardless of why we do it, what we give will still go to help people who need it.  Even if we did it so we can brag about what generous people we are, the money is still needed and still does good things.

            But while what we’ve given helps people regardless of why we’ve given it, why we’ve given it determines what our reward will be.  If we’ve given so people will give us credit for it, if we’ve given so everyone will know what wonderful, kind, generous people we are, well, then once we get that credit, we’ve gotten all the reward we’re going to get.  If we’ve given quietly, for the honor and glory of God, and don’t care whether anyone knows about what we’ve done, then God will give us a reward.  God will bless what we’ve done, and God will bless us.  Because God knows everything we do, the good and the bad.  Nothing we do ever escapes the notice of God.

            And so, when we’re moved to do something good, we really need to pay attention to our motivation.  Are we doing this to get applause from the human crowd?  Or are we doing it to bring honor and glory to God?

            Now that’s not an accusation.  I know there are lots of people in our churches who have given a lot to the church and to the community over the years, and have never wanted to get any credit or applause for it.  You’ve given money, you’ve given time, you’ve given work.  You’ve given prayers, too, and that’s also important.  Some of you have done that stuff and even I don’t know about it.  But I know there are a lot of people who are very dedicated to this church and to the community.  I don’t want you to think I’m accusing anyone of anything.

            But it is a warning.  Because it’s an easy trap to fall into.  We’re all human.  We like to get recognized for what we’ve done.  We want to know that what we’ve done is appreciated.  Sometimes, all we want is to know that someone noticed what we did, even if they don’t know it was us who did it.

            And none of that’s necessarily wrong.  But it is wrong if we start doing things just to get that recognition and appreciation.  It is so easy, and so tempting, to start playing to the human crowd, rather than doing things to the honor and glory to God.

            Humility is a virtue.  But you know, it’s more than just humility.  It’s knowing who God is, and it’s knowing who we are.  And it’s knowing who we are in relation to God.

            What we forget, sometimes, is what an honor and privilege it is to be allowed to serve God.  We forget how deserving God is of receiving our honor and glory.  God deserves far more honor and glory than we mere human beings are capable of giving Him.

            Think about who God is.  Think about how awesome, how incredible God is.  Think about how powerful God is.  Think about how God created the universe and everything in it just by speaking a word.  When we think about that, we should realize that any good thing we do is so incredibly small compared to the goodness of God.  

            God does not need us for anything.  There is nothing we can do for God that God could not do without us.  In fact, God could probably do things a lot better without us.  A lot of times, you and I probably just get in God’s way.  And yet, God chooses to work through us.  God chooses to allow us to serve Him.  That’s an honor.  That’s a privilege God gives us.  It’s something a lot of us don’t think of often enough.  And it’s something we should never take for granted.

            When we think about it that way, humility should come pretty naturally to us.  We should praise God every day for the honor of serving Him.  And when we do happen to do something right, when we do happen to do something good, we should not take or even want any credit for ourselves.  Instead, we should be grateful to God for the privilege of being allowed to do something for Him.

            It’s a natural human thing to want recognition.  It’s a natural human thing to want to be appreciated.  But Jesus wants us to go beyond natural human things.  Jesus wants us to see the honor and privilege we have in being allowed to serve God.  Knowing that God, as great and awesome as God is, sees and appreciates what we do should be all the motivation we will ever need.

 

Loving Jesus--and Life

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 18, 2022.  The Bible verses are John 12:20-29.

            Jesus was not like everybody else.  And you say, well, duh, but think about it.  There has never been, and there will never be, anyone who lives on earth who was like Jesus.  

            For us, life begins when we’re born and ends when we die.  We learn about some of the things that happened before we were born, but there’s an extent to which they don’t seem real to us.  I mean, no matter how much I might read about the Civil War, there’s no way I can really understand what it was like to live through it.  And that’s something relatively recent.  When we read about Biblical times, things that happened two to three thousand years ago, it’s utterly impossible to understand what life was like in those times, no matter how much we might try.

            And the future is even more of a closed book to us.  At most, I might live another forty years, and that’s pretty unlikely.  I cannot imagine what the world’s going to be like in 2062.  And to try to imagine what the world might be like two to three thousand years from now, assuming that the world is still around then–well, again, that’s utterly impossible.  

We have the promise of heaven, of course.  And we believe that, and we think about it.  But we have no real idea what that’s like, either.  We have no idea what we’ll be like when we’re there.  So that’s why I say that, for us, life begins when we’re born and ends when we die–because our lives on earth are the only life we can really relate to.

But none of that is true for Jesus.  Jesus was there when the world was created.  And Jesus will exist when the world is gone.  Jesus’ life on earth was extremely short when you compare it with eternity.  And that gives Jesus a different perspective for life on earth than you or I could ever have.

And that brings me to the statement Jesus made in our reading for today.  Jesus said, “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

That’s a tough one for me.  Maybe it is for you, too.  Because, for the most part, I do love my life.  Not always, of course–we all have parts of our lives that we’re not that fond of.  Things we have to do that we’d rather not have to do.  Things that we have to deal with that we wish we did not have to deal with.  But for the most part, I do love my life.  I have an awesome wife.  I have my Mom in town with me now.  I have a great job and work with great people.  I get to do some fun things like sing and do public address announcing.  I really enjoy my life on earth.

And then I think, did Jesus love his life on earth?  I have no way to know, but I suspect He really did not.  I mean, I hope He enjoyed some of it.  I hope it was not just sheer misery for Him to be on earth.  But think about it.  Jesus is part of the Holy Trinity–God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  And while He was on earth, Jesus was separated from that.  He was, in a sense, separated from Himself.  That had to be really hard on Him.

And then, too, think of the life Jesus led once He started His ministry.  As He said, he had no place to call home.  He was constantly traveling, and when He did try to go back to Nazareth, people rejected Him.  He tried to teach people, but He was dealing with people who, for the most part, did not understand and never would understand.  Who sometimes did not even want to understand.  There were His constant battles with the Pharisees and the other religious leaders, who had no desire to learn anything from Him but were just trying to find a way to trap Him.  

Even His closest friends on earth, the twelve disciples, really did not understand Him.  Some of them, like Peter, were always trying to tell Him what He should or should not do.  And none of them could really understand what it was like to be Jesus.  How could they?  Jesus was utterly unique while He was on earth–fully divine and fully human, in a way that we still don’t really understand.  And then, when you add in the cruel and painful way in which he died–well, I have to conclude that there was not a whole lot for Jesus to love about His life on earth.

So it’s not surprising that Jesus said what he said.  But where does that leave us?  Are those of us who do love our lives on earth in the wrong?  Are we truly in danger of losing our eternal lives if we love our lives on earth?

Well, let’s think about it.  As we said a few weeks ago, Jesus said several times that salvation can be found only through faith in Him as the Savior.  He did not put qualifications on that.  He did not add anything to that.  Salvation can be found through faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Period.

Jesus’ statement that those who love their lives will lose it does not put an extra qualification on salvation.  What it does is explain what faith in Jesus means.  And so does the statement Jesus made right after that:  “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant will also be.  My Father will honor the one who serves me.”

What Jesus is saying is not that it’s wrong to love our lives on earth.  It’s not a sin, and it won’t cost us salvation.  Salvation does, in fact, come through faith in Jesus Christ.  But if we do have faith in Jesus Christ, then we need to serve Jesus Christ.  And if we are going to serve Jesus Christ, we must follow Jesus Christ.

We’re tempted to think, well, I follow Jesus Christ.  But do we?  Do we really?  How far are we willing to follow Him?

While Jesus was on earth, there were lots of people who claimed to follow Jesus.  And then, Jesus started saying things they did not want to hear.  Jesus started saying things that were going to be hard.  Jesus started saying things that challenged people to make real changes in their lives.  And when Jesus did that, a lot of those stopped following.

“Whoever serves me must follow me.”  That’s a serious statement.  Because–think about it–where did Jesus go?  He went to the cross.  Jesus died a horrible, painful death.  That’s where Jesus went.

Does that mean we are all required to follow Him there?  Are we all required to die the way Jesus did to prove our faith?

Well, not necessarily.  As we’ve said before, Jesus calls different people to do different things.  We are not all called to die for our faith in Jesus.  In fact, I don’t know that very many of us are called to do that.

But we could be.  Following Jesus means following Him wherever He leads us.  And it means not trying to control where Jesus may lead us, but simply following, obediently, willingly, no matter where He may lead us to go.

That’s a hard thing to do.  Because Jesus could lead us anywhere.  Even if Jesus does not lead us to risk death for Him, he may lead us to do things that make us uncomfortable.  He may lead us to do things that scare us.  He may lead us to do things that require us to give up our current lifestyle.  He may lead us to do things that take us way out of our comfort zones, to do things we really don’t want to do or go places we really don’t want to go.

I don’t know whether Jesus is calling you to do that right now.  I know Jesus is calling you to do something, but whether Jesus is calling you to make a major change in your life, I don’t know.  But the question is, if Jesus did call you to do that, would you say yes?  

It’s hard.  Most of us do love our current lives.  And if we don’t love them, at least we like them.  And even if we don’t like them, we’re comfortable with them.  It’s what we know.  Would we be willing to follow Jesus into a different sort of life?  Into a different job?  Into a different place?  Into being with different people?  Into an entirely different lifestyle?  

If we say no, we’re saying we’re more interested in keeping our lives the way they are than we are in following Jesus.  We’re saying we love our lives more than we love Jesus.  And as Christians, there is nothing in this life that we should love more than we love Jesus.

It may seem like Jesus is asking a lot.  But think of it this way.  If you’ve ever been married, or even if you’ve ever been in a serious relationship, have you given up things for the person you love?  Of course you have.  Did you think it was worth it?  You probably did, or you would not have done it.  You may have liked your life the way it was, but you changed it out of love for someone else.  One of the things that makes a loving relationship work is that we make sacrifices for each other.  

Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us–He gave up His life on earth.  But Jesus asks us to make sacrifices, too.  Jesus asks us to give up things to follow Him.  There may be times when it’s hard to do that.  But it will be worth it.  If we want our relationship with Jesus to work, there will be times we need to make sacrifices for Him, just as He made sacrifices for us.

It’s okay to love our lives on earth.  But let’s not love our life on earth more than we love Jesus.  Because loving Jesus is the way to eternal life.  And that’s the life we really need to love.