[This will be our final sermon of the year at Pilgrims. During the Christmas break, our students will go to their hometowns, or to Kyiv to protest, or to the mountains with friends. We're going to talk about reading the Bible and why that is important. This sermon will be co-preached with Pastor Volodya Prokip - so you'll only get to read my introduction. The rest is hands on Bible searching tips, and encouragement to read the Bible by Rev Prokip.]
A good friend gave me a book in Ukrainian for my birthday last year. I sat down to read it, and I really intended to read it all. It was a good gift - a book by a good author that my friend had enjoyed. I read the first sentence. I got out my dictionary and looked up all three words that I didn't know. I wrote my new vocabulary words in the margins. I read the second sentence. I only needed to look up two words. I read the first sentence and the second sentence together. I read the third sentence and looked up all four words that I didn't know. By this time, I had forgotten what the first two sentences were about. I made it through the first two paragraphs before I gave up. I was so frustrated.
I told Ananastasiya Krachkovska-Lyubis about my failed attempt at reading a book in Ukrainian, and she told me that I should just keep reading. She encouraged me to just keep reading past the words I didn't understand and to find the larger meaning in the context - and I was sure that she was crazy. But, about a week later, I was on vacation in Kyiv and I found a trashy-romance novel lying around my friend's apartment. I asked my friend if it was good - and she said that it was trash, but really fun trash. I started to read it, and I read right through every word that I didn't understand. And I kept reading, and I felt so lost and so inadequate - but after a few pages, I got into a rhythm and I realized that I was understanding the plot perfectly fine. I read the whole way through the book, and for a Ukrainian, it might have been boring and cliche - but for me, reading it in my second language - it was the most interesting book I'd ever read. With each plot twist, I became more engaged. By the last 30 pages, I was just so excited that I was actually reading a book. There were still words I didn't understand, but they didn't matter - somehow, they just didn't matter! I finished the book, and came from my reading nook into my friend's living room and announced to the whole group gathered that I had read a whole book in Ukrainian. My friends all laughed with me, as I proudly held up this trashy romance novel with such pride. It was a beautifully awkward moment, and one that still brings joy to my heart.
---
It's easy to begin reading the Bible and to quickly get bogged down in the details. The first time I vowed to read the whole Bible, I started in Genesis and had a great time reading amazing stories from the first two books of the Bible - and then I hit Leviticus. What a shock to hit the book of Leviticus and realize how shockingly boring the Bible can be. I kept notes, I drew diagrams and charts. I tried to understand - but, for many, many chapters in a row, there's just not a take away lesson from the book of Leviticus. It's a book of rules, and, quite frankly, rules that just don't apply to us anymore. I made it most of the way through Numbers before giving up.
This wasn't my last attempt to read the whole Bible - and it wasn't my last failed attempt either.
We can either read the Bible as a textbook or a reference book - something given to keep us within the lines of a box - or we can read the Bible as a love letter from God meant to set us free. I believe with all of my heart that this Holy Book is the most wonderful story every told, that it is the true story of God's great love for you, and that reading this book for yourself will change your life every time.
Every time I read something from the Bible, I find something that I didn't remember from before. I read the sermon on the mount over and over again, maybe more than a thousand times I've read the beginning of that sermon - and it still feels like I notice something new each time.
Tonight we are going to talk about the mechanics of the Bible. We're going to look at how the Bible is put together, how to find things in the Bible, and why we should all be reading the Bible more than we do.
Enjoy.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
What we get wrong V
[Ukraine is in great turmoil. Things are moving very quickly and people are often scared and tense. We have vowed to continue worshiping and we are beginning to think about how we can best serve the student-protesters. This is an interesting environment in which to think and talk about prayer. Prayer is hard sometimes, or sometimes it is all we have or sometimes it is both at the same time.]
Let's talk honestly about prayer for a bit. Prayer doesn't always come naturally or easily. Sometimes prayer is difficult. Many people have a hard time praying out loud, or at all.
For some people, prayer comes very easily.
We say the Lor'd Prayer all the time. It is part of our culture to repeat it together. It is good to remember these beautiful words. But, we must listen carefully to Jesus in these verses. Jesus asks those listening not to use fancy words - he gives us this prayer as a model of simplicity. Jesus doesn't want our empty words. If this prayer is meaningless to us, we should stop praying it until we get the meaning.
The Lord's prayer is an opening and a closing and six requests
For God's
name
reign
will
For our
bread
debts
deliverance/enemies
It's really simple and beautiful. It shows that God and God's role in our lives is more important than us and our desires. It lifts up the greatness and glory of God and asks only for our most basic needs and the needs of those around us.
When I was a pastor in the states - everywhere that I went I was asked to pray. I was asked to pray at funerals and church services like I would expect, but also at sporting events and barbecues. At every meal I ate with friends from church, I was asked to pray for it.
And this was funny to me, because I'm not good at prayer.
It seems that my mother is always at the business of prayer. I remember as a child, I would be running around the church while mom was practicing the pipe organ - and I would come up behind her and say,
"mom, mom, mom, mom, mummy, mummy, mummy, mom, mom, mother, mom" and she would quietly say, "not now, Michael, I'm praying" It wasn't that a massive pipe organ was flying under her control and each pipe was blasting loud music and she couldn't hear me - it was that in the depth of her soul, she was quite and still. When life was hard, she would kneel at the altar at the front of our church and sob in prayer. When we were poor as could be, she would cook enough food for me and Rebecca and say a prayer of thanksgiving to God that rang out so perfectly, even when there wasn't enough for her to eat as well. Mom would pray for us at night, and I always knew I was safe.
One day we were at the church searching for something - and we had been searching for hours - and mom said, "alright, Lord" and reached her hand into the same closet I had searched for over an hour, and pulled out exactly what we had been looking for! We always teased her that if we ever needed anything, we would ask her to pray for it - because apparently God listens to her more than God listens to us. And still to this day, when I'm in trouble, I always call my mom first and ask her to pray.
I didn't inherit this from my mom.
Prayer is a struggle for me. I forget to pray sometimes when I know that I should, and sometimes - when things are really difficult - I don't want to pray and I really have to struggle to get even basic words out.
I have some times when prayer is easier, but usually prayer is hard. For a long time, I thought that I needed to have the right words and to say things in the right way. This made prayer much too hard.
Now, when I pray, I sit and have a conversation with God. I think this is what Jesus asks us to do. I'm honest with Jesus, I share my anger and my frustration. I share when I'm thankful, but not as often as I should.
These last few weeks, we've talked about different ways that Jesus wants us to share our faith. We are salt and light and we shouldn't put ourselves under a jar. A lot of these have been very external, but with prayer - with prayer Jesus asks us to do the opposite. He asks us NOT to use prayer as an external evidence of our faith. Jesus reminds us that prayer is about helping us to connect with God.
I asked one of the women from the little church I served if she would pray one day, and she looked down at her hands and she said, "Oh, Michael, I can't do any nice prayers like you..."
And I remember all the pastors who ever served and they all had such nice prayers. A few even wrote their prayers before the service to make sure that they were perfect. And, honestly, when you have to pray in public a lot, you get better at making the words sound nicer
But, you don't get better at prayer:
"Prayer is largely just being silent: holding the tension instead of even talking it through, offering the moment instead of fixing it by words and ideas, loving reality as it is instead of understanding it fully. Prayer is commonly a willingness to say “I don’t know.” We must not push the river, we must just trust that we are already in the river, and God is the certain flow and current." - Richard Rohr
This is a beautiful image of prayer. When you pray, you are in a river trusting God to do the rest.
We have much to pray about here. Sometimes there is so much going on around us and we feel so helpless and sometimes it is even hard to pray.
Did you know that couples in love, when they sit near to each other, that their heartbeats and breathing become synchronized. When strangers sit side by side, this doesn't happen - but when a couple is in love, just being together brings their pulse and breathing together.
There is nothing so wonderful as feeling the pulse of a loved one while holding their hand or in an embrace.
This is how I understand prayer. When we pray, we sit next to the God that we love. We have a conversation and we say what we need to say - and God can take our harshest criticism, so don't hold back ... God doesn't want you to lie! - but at the same time, our heartbeat matches up to God's. Our heart beats in the same way that God's does. Our heart breaks for what breaks God's heart. We see things in God's way - slowly but surely. It takes time, but the longer we sit by God's side and talk with God, the more our hearts line up.
It is not the length of our prayers or the words that we pray that make our prayers valuable. The Pagans felt like they had to say everything and explain their side of the situation so that their gods would take their side. Jesus asks us not to do this. God is already on our side. God already knows the situation much better than we ever will. Don't be afraid to tell God everything, but don't think that you're giving God any new information.
In some Christian circles some people talk about praying in a specific way and they say that this way is a "stronger" way to pray than praying in some other way - and we might all like to know some secret way to pray that will totally make our prayer better - people write books all the time with some secret prayer or some secret way to pray ... but this is nonsense. The thing that matters in our prayers is the One to whom we are praying.
Jesus asks us, for our part, not to focus on our words, but to focus on our sincerity.
Think of the way that a child talks to a parent. Not the way that we talk to our parents - the way that it can be awkward or hard, but think about the way you talked to your parents as a child. The way that you could say anything and ask anything and everything was right. When we pray, we must be sincere with God.
Over the years, I've learned that the only wrong way to pray is to not pray. When we choose to hold onto our problems and our challenges and our praise - we get lost. When we try to find the answers in ourselves, we find that we don't have the answers.
When we pray, we give everything over to God. We are going to break up into our small groups now and talk about prayer and then we will end in prayer. It's just us and God tonight. When Jesus talked about going into a separate room to pray, Jesus was talking to people who lived in one room houses. Jesus meant that we should never show off our prayers. We should never boast about our prayers. Tonight, I want to challenge each of you to pray out loud in your small group. Even if you don't have beautiful words. Even if you don't like the way your voice sounds. Even if you're not as good a Christian as you think everyone else it. If you don't know what to say, You can just say "Hi God. Thank you."
Let's talk honestly about prayer for a bit. Prayer doesn't always come naturally or easily. Sometimes prayer is difficult. Many people have a hard time praying out loud, or at all.
For some people, prayer comes very easily.
We say the Lor'd Prayer all the time. It is part of our culture to repeat it together. It is good to remember these beautiful words. But, we must listen carefully to Jesus in these verses. Jesus asks those listening not to use fancy words - he gives us this prayer as a model of simplicity. Jesus doesn't want our empty words. If this prayer is meaningless to us, we should stop praying it until we get the meaning.
The Lord's prayer is an opening and a closing and six requests
For God's
name
reign
will
For our
bread
debts
deliverance/enemies
It's really simple and beautiful. It shows that God and God's role in our lives is more important than us and our desires. It lifts up the greatness and glory of God and asks only for our most basic needs and the needs of those around us.
When I was a pastor in the states - everywhere that I went I was asked to pray. I was asked to pray at funerals and church services like I would expect, but also at sporting events and barbecues. At every meal I ate with friends from church, I was asked to pray for it.
And this was funny to me, because I'm not good at prayer.
It seems that my mother is always at the business of prayer. I remember as a child, I would be running around the church while mom was practicing the pipe organ - and I would come up behind her and say,
"mom, mom, mom, mom, mummy, mummy, mummy, mom, mom, mother, mom" and she would quietly say, "not now, Michael, I'm praying" It wasn't that a massive pipe organ was flying under her control and each pipe was blasting loud music and she couldn't hear me - it was that in the depth of her soul, she was quite and still. When life was hard, she would kneel at the altar at the front of our church and sob in prayer. When we were poor as could be, she would cook enough food for me and Rebecca and say a prayer of thanksgiving to God that rang out so perfectly, even when there wasn't enough for her to eat as well. Mom would pray for us at night, and I always knew I was safe.
One day we were at the church searching for something - and we had been searching for hours - and mom said, "alright, Lord" and reached her hand into the same closet I had searched for over an hour, and pulled out exactly what we had been looking for! We always teased her that if we ever needed anything, we would ask her to pray for it - because apparently God listens to her more than God listens to us. And still to this day, when I'm in trouble, I always call my mom first and ask her to pray.
I didn't inherit this from my mom.
Prayer is a struggle for me. I forget to pray sometimes when I know that I should, and sometimes - when things are really difficult - I don't want to pray and I really have to struggle to get even basic words out.
I have some times when prayer is easier, but usually prayer is hard. For a long time, I thought that I needed to have the right words and to say things in the right way. This made prayer much too hard.
Now, when I pray, I sit and have a conversation with God. I think this is what Jesus asks us to do. I'm honest with Jesus, I share my anger and my frustration. I share when I'm thankful, but not as often as I should.
These last few weeks, we've talked about different ways that Jesus wants us to share our faith. We are salt and light and we shouldn't put ourselves under a jar. A lot of these have been very external, but with prayer - with prayer Jesus asks us to do the opposite. He asks us NOT to use prayer as an external evidence of our faith. Jesus reminds us that prayer is about helping us to connect with God.
I asked one of the women from the little church I served if she would pray one day, and she looked down at her hands and she said, "Oh, Michael, I can't do any nice prayers like you..."
And I remember all the pastors who ever served and they all had such nice prayers. A few even wrote their prayers before the service to make sure that they were perfect. And, honestly, when you have to pray in public a lot, you get better at making the words sound nicer
But, you don't get better at prayer:
"Prayer is largely just being silent: holding the tension instead of even talking it through, offering the moment instead of fixing it by words and ideas, loving reality as it is instead of understanding it fully. Prayer is commonly a willingness to say “I don’t know.” We must not push the river, we must just trust that we are already in the river, and God is the certain flow and current." - Richard Rohr
This is a beautiful image of prayer. When you pray, you are in a river trusting God to do the rest.
We have much to pray about here. Sometimes there is so much going on around us and we feel so helpless and sometimes it is even hard to pray.
Did you know that couples in love, when they sit near to each other, that their heartbeats and breathing become synchronized. When strangers sit side by side, this doesn't happen - but when a couple is in love, just being together brings their pulse and breathing together.
There is nothing so wonderful as feeling the pulse of a loved one while holding their hand or in an embrace.
This is how I understand prayer. When we pray, we sit next to the God that we love. We have a conversation and we say what we need to say - and God can take our harshest criticism, so don't hold back ... God doesn't want you to lie! - but at the same time, our heartbeat matches up to God's. Our heart beats in the same way that God's does. Our heart breaks for what breaks God's heart. We see things in God's way - slowly but surely. It takes time, but the longer we sit by God's side and talk with God, the more our hearts line up.
It is not the length of our prayers or the words that we pray that make our prayers valuable. The Pagans felt like they had to say everything and explain their side of the situation so that their gods would take their side. Jesus asks us not to do this. God is already on our side. God already knows the situation much better than we ever will. Don't be afraid to tell God everything, but don't think that you're giving God any new information.
In some Christian circles some people talk about praying in a specific way and they say that this way is a "stronger" way to pray than praying in some other way - and we might all like to know some secret way to pray that will totally make our prayer better - people write books all the time with some secret prayer or some secret way to pray ... but this is nonsense. The thing that matters in our prayers is the One to whom we are praying.
Jesus asks us, for our part, not to focus on our words, but to focus on our sincerity.
Think of the way that a child talks to a parent. Not the way that we talk to our parents - the way that it can be awkward or hard, but think about the way you talked to your parents as a child. The way that you could say anything and ask anything and everything was right. When we pray, we must be sincere with God.
Over the years, I've learned that the only wrong way to pray is to not pray. When we choose to hold onto our problems and our challenges and our praise - we get lost. When we try to find the answers in ourselves, we find that we don't have the answers.
When we pray, we give everything over to God. We are going to break up into our small groups now and talk about prayer and then we will end in prayer. It's just us and God tonight. When Jesus talked about going into a separate room to pray, Jesus was talking to people who lived in one room houses. Jesus meant that we should never show off our prayers. We should never boast about our prayers. Tonight, I want to challenge each of you to pray out loud in your small group. Even if you don't have beautiful words. Even if you don't like the way your voice sounds. Even if you're not as good a Christian as you think everyone else it. If you don't know what to say, You can just say "Hi God. Thank you."
Wednesday, December 04, 2013
What we get wrong IV
[It continues to be a challenging time for our students. The protesters are out in full force, parliament failed to gather enough votes to oust the current administration, and many are disillusioned. The foreign press are skewing the facts, it is rumored that as many as 10 protesters might have been killed and their bodies confiscated, and tensions are high. Please pray for our students and for a just and peaceful resolution.
Worship is a form of protest. When we worship, we protest the values of this world. We show that although we have different political ideas, our God is one and we can come together to God. When we worship, we show where our priorities are - and that our priorities are higher than the world's.We will continue to have worship throughout the revolution. Life continues, and worship is much too important to ignore.]
Matthew 5:27-37
Sex, Lies, and Love
Arranged marriages are still common in some cultures. In India, the newspapers are filled with classified - but instead of people writing for themselves, their parents write for them. For us this is strange, perhaps, but your parents almost always want what is best for you.
In the days of the Old Testament, marriages were generally arranged. Marriage was big business. It becomes hard to read parts of the Old Testament, when you understand that the rules and restrictions about women and their behaviour were written to keep women valuable.
You earned money so that your sons would inherit large fortunes and land, but women didn't (generally) inherit these things. Other things gave a woman value - her beauty, her virginity, and her social connections. So as families arraigned marriages, it would make sense that everyone would try and marry a step up in the world. If you are rich, you want your sons to marry beautiful and virtuous women. If you are poor, you hope that your daughter will be a valuable commodity.
Marriage was a business contract between families.
Love is part of it. Throughout the Old Testament, as we read the stories of great Biblical couples, we see that they loved each other. But, when you see the way that couples came together - it becomes strange. When a woman was procured for her husband, it was common for her to be brought to him with a veil covering her face - and for them to marry on the first meeting. This is what happened with Isaac and Rebekah.
In the book of Ruth, we see the story of a crafty mother-in-law helping her daughter-in-law marry up a station or two than she deserved.
Jacob loved Rachel - and his uncle was the one who would give her away in marriage. His uncle Laban knew that he had leverage. Jacob loved Rachel and would do anything to be with her. Laban made Jacob work for seven years to earn Rachel ... and on the wedding night, he tricked a drunk Jacob into marrying a veiled woman who was actually Rachel's sister Leah. So Jacob worked another seven years to earn Rachel.
Marriage was a business contract.
And so divorce was serious business. Divorce meant more than a couple splitting up - it was the tearing apart of a family. It was business, and it could be a disaster.
The Old Testament laws dictated the value of a woman in this business deal, but they also stipulated how a divorce should work and under what circumstances.
And it is easy for us to read these few short lines about divorce and understand that God is against divorce and move on.
But we have to stop and think about how radical Jesus' words were.
Jesus radically redefined marriage.
Because all of this is about moving away from the law and into love and grace.
And so, under the old system - if you divorced you had broken the law.
Under the new system, you have broken love.
If you have broken the law there are penalties and financial problems - but to break love, it destroys the people involved. Jesus is against divorce not because of the financial implications - he's against it because love is primary. Love is above all of our possessions.
In these verses, we move from covenant to relationship. This is vital.
A covenant is a promise. It is a contract.
If you have a marriage covenant - you promise to stay together. You have a contract that outlines the financial obligations.
But a relationship is so much more than that, right? If you have a contract - there is obligation. In a relationship, it is a choice.
If you get married, every day you will make the choice to stay in love with your spouse. Every day. Some days you will hate him or her and you will be disgusted by him or her. Every day you must choose to love them.
In the Old Testament, people lived by the covenant. There were rules, and they tried to live within those rules so that they didn't break covenant. Because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, now we live in Relationship with God. This is huge and we can't miss this.
---
When Jesus talks about lust, he draws the lines between living within the rule of "you shall not commit adultery" and living within relationship. Because, if the rule says not to commit adultery ... well, what does that mean? Does that just mean that "If I'm married, I can't have sex with someone else? It isn't cheating if it's just a kiss. Oral sex doesn't count as real sex. Is it really cheating if our eyes are closed?"
It's easy to justify our sin.
Sinning is fun.
Let me say that again, because it's probably not something you hear your pastor say very often. Sinning is fun. The Bible tells us this, Proverbs 9:17 says, "Stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is delicious."
If sinning wasn't fun, we wouldn't do it.
Sinning is fun, but ... it's not more fun than relationship with God.
In these verses, Jesus clearly outlines that we cannot live within the contract and earn our way into heaven. It's not good enough to try and keep just inside of the lines. If the Bible says not to commit adultery, and we try and push it just as far as we can without it being a sin - we have already sinned.
If you want to earn your salvation, you better be willing to cut off your hands and pluck out your eyes.
But Jesus offers us relationship instead of covenant. Jesus offers us the chance to live within God's glory in relationship with Christ.
And relationship is a daily choice. Every day we must choose to love God. We must choose to walk in our own way or to walk in the way of God. Every day.
Friends, this is the one thing that I will say specifically about sex before marriage. The Bible teaches us not to do it, but I know that many people today ignore that. If you didn't wait, your sins are forgiven. If you love the person you are with, wait. If your boyfriend/girlfriend is willing to sin against God with you today, he or she might also be willing to sin against God with someone else tomorrow.
A relationship is about love and trust and respect.
But in a true and good relationship, how do you punish your partner when he or she disobeys you?
You don't. That's not a relationship. That's a covenant.
We aren't trying to earn our salvation by being good. We aren't trying to prove our love to God by being good. We are good because we understand that God loves us either way. Wether we sin mightily or feed every orphan in India, God loves us just the same.
There is nothing we can do to change the love that God has for us. You can't be so bad that God will stop loving you, and you can't be so God that God will love you more - because God already loves you completely.
This is the Good News that we have to offer. God loves you. You didn't earn it. You don't deserve it. But God loves you anyway.
I am a sinner. I am ashamed and embarrased of my sins. And some days I choose my sin over my God. Sinning is fun. But every time I make that choice, in the end, I realize that God loves me anyway - and that God's love is so much greater than my sin. Our sins tear us apart and break us down. God's love recreates us and builds us up.
When Jesus talks about oaths, he tears down the idea that we have anything to offer. Everything that we have is Gods. We can't swear by our heads because our heads belong to God. We have one oath to make. And that oath is made daily. It is the oath to be in relationship with Christ. We must make it every day.
Worship is a form of protest. When we worship, we protest the values of this world. We show that although we have different political ideas, our God is one and we can come together to God. When we worship, we show where our priorities are - and that our priorities are higher than the world's.We will continue to have worship throughout the revolution. Life continues, and worship is much too important to ignore.]
Matthew 5:27-37
Sex, Lies, and Love
Arranged marriages are still common in some cultures. In India, the newspapers are filled with classified - but instead of people writing for themselves, their parents write for them. For us this is strange, perhaps, but your parents almost always want what is best for you.
In the days of the Old Testament, marriages were generally arranged. Marriage was big business. It becomes hard to read parts of the Old Testament, when you understand that the rules and restrictions about women and their behaviour were written to keep women valuable.
You earned money so that your sons would inherit large fortunes and land, but women didn't (generally) inherit these things. Other things gave a woman value - her beauty, her virginity, and her social connections. So as families arraigned marriages, it would make sense that everyone would try and marry a step up in the world. If you are rich, you want your sons to marry beautiful and virtuous women. If you are poor, you hope that your daughter will be a valuable commodity.
Marriage was a business contract between families.
Love is part of it. Throughout the Old Testament, as we read the stories of great Biblical couples, we see that they loved each other. But, when you see the way that couples came together - it becomes strange. When a woman was procured for her husband, it was common for her to be brought to him with a veil covering her face - and for them to marry on the first meeting. This is what happened with Isaac and Rebekah.
In the book of Ruth, we see the story of a crafty mother-in-law helping her daughter-in-law marry up a station or two than she deserved.
Jacob loved Rachel - and his uncle was the one who would give her away in marriage. His uncle Laban knew that he had leverage. Jacob loved Rachel and would do anything to be with her. Laban made Jacob work for seven years to earn Rachel ... and on the wedding night, he tricked a drunk Jacob into marrying a veiled woman who was actually Rachel's sister Leah. So Jacob worked another seven years to earn Rachel.
Marriage was a business contract.
And so divorce was serious business. Divorce meant more than a couple splitting up - it was the tearing apart of a family. It was business, and it could be a disaster.
The Old Testament laws dictated the value of a woman in this business deal, but they also stipulated how a divorce should work and under what circumstances.
And it is easy for us to read these few short lines about divorce and understand that God is against divorce and move on.
But we have to stop and think about how radical Jesus' words were.
Jesus radically redefined marriage.
Because all of this is about moving away from the law and into love and grace.
And so, under the old system - if you divorced you had broken the law.
Under the new system, you have broken love.
If you have broken the law there are penalties and financial problems - but to break love, it destroys the people involved. Jesus is against divorce not because of the financial implications - he's against it because love is primary. Love is above all of our possessions.
In these verses, we move from covenant to relationship. This is vital.
A covenant is a promise. It is a contract.
If you have a marriage covenant - you promise to stay together. You have a contract that outlines the financial obligations.
But a relationship is so much more than that, right? If you have a contract - there is obligation. In a relationship, it is a choice.
If you get married, every day you will make the choice to stay in love with your spouse. Every day. Some days you will hate him or her and you will be disgusted by him or her. Every day you must choose to love them.
In the Old Testament, people lived by the covenant. There were rules, and they tried to live within those rules so that they didn't break covenant. Because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, now we live in Relationship with God. This is huge and we can't miss this.
---
When Jesus talks about lust, he draws the lines between living within the rule of "you shall not commit adultery" and living within relationship. Because, if the rule says not to commit adultery ... well, what does that mean? Does that just mean that "If I'm married, I can't have sex with someone else? It isn't cheating if it's just a kiss. Oral sex doesn't count as real sex. Is it really cheating if our eyes are closed?"
It's easy to justify our sin.
Sinning is fun.
Let me say that again, because it's probably not something you hear your pastor say very often. Sinning is fun. The Bible tells us this, Proverbs 9:17 says, "Stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is delicious."
If sinning wasn't fun, we wouldn't do it.
Sinning is fun, but ... it's not more fun than relationship with God.
In these verses, Jesus clearly outlines that we cannot live within the contract and earn our way into heaven. It's not good enough to try and keep just inside of the lines. If the Bible says not to commit adultery, and we try and push it just as far as we can without it being a sin - we have already sinned.
If you want to earn your salvation, you better be willing to cut off your hands and pluck out your eyes.
But Jesus offers us relationship instead of covenant. Jesus offers us the chance to live within God's glory in relationship with Christ.
And relationship is a daily choice. Every day we must choose to love God. We must choose to walk in our own way or to walk in the way of God. Every day.
Friends, this is the one thing that I will say specifically about sex before marriage. The Bible teaches us not to do it, but I know that many people today ignore that. If you didn't wait, your sins are forgiven. If you love the person you are with, wait. If your boyfriend/girlfriend is willing to sin against God with you today, he or she might also be willing to sin against God with someone else tomorrow.
A relationship is about love and trust and respect.
But in a true and good relationship, how do you punish your partner when he or she disobeys you?
You don't. That's not a relationship. That's a covenant.
We aren't trying to earn our salvation by being good. We aren't trying to prove our love to God by being good. We are good because we understand that God loves us either way. Wether we sin mightily or feed every orphan in India, God loves us just the same.
There is nothing we can do to change the love that God has for us. You can't be so bad that God will stop loving you, and you can't be so God that God will love you more - because God already loves you completely.
This is the Good News that we have to offer. God loves you. You didn't earn it. You don't deserve it. But God loves you anyway.
I am a sinner. I am ashamed and embarrased of my sins. And some days I choose my sin over my God. Sinning is fun. But every time I make that choice, in the end, I realize that God loves me anyway - and that God's love is so much greater than my sin. Our sins tear us apart and break us down. God's love recreates us and builds us up.
When Jesus talks about oaths, he tears down the idea that we have anything to offer. Everything that we have is Gods. We can't swear by our heads because our heads belong to God. We have one oath to make. And that oath is made daily. It is the oath to be in relationship with Christ. We must make it every day.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
What we get wrong III
[As we continue to explore the ways that we misunderstand or fail to fully understand the sermon on the mount, our Pilgrims student worship service is thrown into a bit of quandary because more than half of our students are in Kyiv at the protests. We won't have any music this week, and it will just be a short sermon and prayer time before we head together to the central square to join the rally. Today is the day that a trade agreement with the EU was to be signed - a trade agreement that would have injected hundreds of billions of dollars into our economy and infrastructure over the next few years. This is a sad and a hard day for many - and a day of protest for many many more.]
Matthew 5:38-48
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Love for Enemies
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
----
It is easy to forget that Jesus was speaking to a crowd of occupied people and their occupiers. These people were not free to do as they pleased, their tax system was filled with corruption, and the soldiers roaming the streets were free to force them to do anything they wanted.
These are people with a great big enemy.
The Old Testament was written as a law book. An eye for an eye was a progressive law. The earliest law had been the law of revenge. If someone pokes out your eye - you should kill their child.
The Old Testament taught that rather than revenge, there should be justice - and that it is not yours to take, but for society to give.
Jesus takes this one step further. We go from the law of revenge to the law of justice to the law of love.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies.
But it's interesting. Jesus doesn't say that these people will stop being our enemies. Jesus doesn't say that we shouldn't have enemies. If we live out our Christian faith well, we will certainly acquire many enemies. Everyone who wants to make more money off the backs of the poor will hate us. Those who hate freedom and human rights will hate us. Those who stand against progress will hate us.
It is our response that must be better. We must love them. This is easy to say, but nearly impossible to do.
We are never called to back down or retreat or cower in fear - we are not called to be pushovers so that we won't have enemies. If you stand up for what is right, you will be surrounded by enemies.
Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek. Could anything be more courageous to do and more humiliating for your enemy. It's like getting punched and asking if his grandma is done punching you and if he will be punching you next.
Jesus calls us to be courageous in our response. Jesus calls us to love them. Nothing takes more courage than to love someone who hates you.
Jesus calls us to pray for our enemies. You can't hate someone that you lift up to God day after day. When I realize that I hate someone, I make myself pray "Lord, bless them." day after day. It's a terribly painful prayer to pray - but I realize that my hate for that person goes away after only a few days.
Jesus doesn't call us to do the smallest amount that we can, Jesus calls us to step up and to do real things that really prove our love. When Jesus calls us to "give our robe as well" he is talking about the outer robe - the most important item of clothing. For many it was their only cover at night and their only protection from the cold. If you gave it to your enemy, you are signalling that your enemy is perhaps even taking your very life.
Dear friends, we are called to respond in love. We are called to stand up against all that is evil. More fire can't put out a fire. Only water puts out a fire. More hate doesn't put out hate. Only love puts out hate.
Now we are going to spend some time in prayer for our enemies. For our country. For a just and peaceful resolution for these protests. And after that, those who wish to can go together to the rally. Our biggest challenge is to show what true love looks like in the face of hatred. If we can show that, it will be contagious.
Amen.
Matthew 5:38-48
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Love for Enemies
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
----
It is easy to forget that Jesus was speaking to a crowd of occupied people and their occupiers. These people were not free to do as they pleased, their tax system was filled with corruption, and the soldiers roaming the streets were free to force them to do anything they wanted.
These are people with a great big enemy.
The Old Testament was written as a law book. An eye for an eye was a progressive law. The earliest law had been the law of revenge. If someone pokes out your eye - you should kill their child.
The Old Testament taught that rather than revenge, there should be justice - and that it is not yours to take, but for society to give.
Jesus takes this one step further. We go from the law of revenge to the law of justice to the law of love.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies.
But it's interesting. Jesus doesn't say that these people will stop being our enemies. Jesus doesn't say that we shouldn't have enemies. If we live out our Christian faith well, we will certainly acquire many enemies. Everyone who wants to make more money off the backs of the poor will hate us. Those who hate freedom and human rights will hate us. Those who stand against progress will hate us.
It is our response that must be better. We must love them. This is easy to say, but nearly impossible to do.
We are never called to back down or retreat or cower in fear - we are not called to be pushovers so that we won't have enemies. If you stand up for what is right, you will be surrounded by enemies.
Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek. Could anything be more courageous to do and more humiliating for your enemy. It's like getting punched and asking if his grandma is done punching you and if he will be punching you next.
Jesus calls us to be courageous in our response. Jesus calls us to love them. Nothing takes more courage than to love someone who hates you.
Jesus calls us to pray for our enemies. You can't hate someone that you lift up to God day after day. When I realize that I hate someone, I make myself pray "Lord, bless them." day after day. It's a terribly painful prayer to pray - but I realize that my hate for that person goes away after only a few days.
Jesus doesn't call us to do the smallest amount that we can, Jesus calls us to step up and to do real things that really prove our love. When Jesus calls us to "give our robe as well" he is talking about the outer robe - the most important item of clothing. For many it was their only cover at night and their only protection from the cold. If you gave it to your enemy, you are signalling that your enemy is perhaps even taking your very life.
Dear friends, we are called to respond in love. We are called to stand up against all that is evil. More fire can't put out a fire. Only water puts out a fire. More hate doesn't put out hate. Only love puts out hate.
Now we are going to spend some time in prayer for our enemies. For our country. For a just and peaceful resolution for these protests. And after that, those who wish to can go together to the rally. Our biggest challenge is to show what true love looks like in the face of hatred. If we can show that, it will be contagious.
Amen.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
What we get wrong II
[This is the second part in a sermon series about the Sermon on the Mount and the ways that we misunderstand it or only partially understand it. We begin and end in small group discussion, and last week it went very well. It's an experiment that we will keep practicing. Please keep us in your daily prayers as the weather gets colder and it is more tempting to go home and crawl into bed after classes. Also, please pray for our new and young students that God would continue to draw them into relationship and community.}
Matthew 5:17-25
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.
---
Whenever we speak, it seems that people hear what they want to hear. Every time I preach, I pray the quick prayer, "Lord, that thing that you do between my mouth and their ears - do it again today." It amazes me when I hear people talk about what they learned from a sermon I preached. Because sometimes someone will get something great out of sermon ... but it totally wasn't what I thought I was trying to say. I love hearing the way that God uses my sermon in ways that I could never anticipate.
If someone stands in the city center and yells out "Slava Ukraina" - there are perhaps three groups of hearers.
- perhaps some will hear who share the patriotism who will respond "Heroim Slava"
- perhaps there will be some who are of a different political position who will hear only nationalistic propaganda
- and perhaps there will be some foreigners who will just wonder why people are shouting.
When Jesus stood up to speak, the crowd was not all of one mind. We all love Jesus - and so, it is easy to picture a crowd forming around Jesus of adoring disciples: gently and quietly listening, hanging on his every word. But this probably wasn't the case. Throughout the scripture, the crowd surrounding Jesus is painted as more of an unruly mob than a gentle flock. The Pharisees and Sadducees were brooding with their arms crossed and the fanatics were throwing themselves at Jesus to be healed and perhaps only those who were slightly skeptical were sitting gently and listening intently.
So everyone heard the words of Jesus differently, right?
- The Pharisees heard every word and they looked to find some way to twist it to make it sound like Jesus was going to destroy their religion.
- The fanatics were hoping that Jesus was really going to destroy the old religion and the way that it worked.
- The skeptical hoped for something better, but expected new and different rules.
and Jesus has to take all of these different ideas and unite them behind the truth ... which was different than what each group heard, right?
Many people called the Old Testament The Law and the Prophets. In this sentence Jesus comes close to saying that, but instead of "and" - he says "or". And this seems like such a tiny difference that we might skip over it - but it's key to the story. The Prophets sometimes seemed to say things that contradicted The Law. You don't get very far into the book of Hosea before reading that God told Hosea to marry a prostitute ... just, to put a radical example out there. If we just read a book of the Bible like Leviticus, it is really easy to get overwhelmed by rules and regulations - and in the Psalms David calls the law perfect, and then he talks about the Messiah who will come to save Israel ... and this is contradictory because it might seem that it was the laws that kept them clean and kept them close to God.
And the Pharisees they loved to sit for hours and argue over which of the laws were the lightest and which were the heaviest. Which were most important and which were least important. It was like a card game for the religious elite.
When Jesus uses "or" instead of and - he makes a very crucial point. Sometimes it seems that the law and the prophets contradict each other or have different ideas. Some of the laws were more important than another. The point that Jesus makes is that He is the one who brings it all together.
Jesus didn't come to destroy or abolish or remove the law
Jesus came to fulfill the law. He came to fulfill the prophecies.
Jesus is what holds the law and the prophets together. Jesus completes all of the law. The final words of The Law were the words that Jesus spoke on the cross. "It is finished."
All the rules, all the games, all the arguments about weightiness of laws, all the struggles about the contradiction. All of the religious games, they stayed up on that cross after Jesus was brought down. Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets. He gave them their full meaning. Jesus was the "Perfect Law" that the Psalmist had been talking about.
Because the Pharisees had made it their job to dissect and pull apart the laws. They worked to find loopholes. They knew how to follow the law to the letter, to walk right on the line and never cross it.
And Jesus takes the line away.
This is the point of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus takes all the arguments and changes and justifications that the Pharisees have made and he tears them apart.
---
It's easier to be told exactly what to do. Rules are easier than freedom. This is why Islam is growing and some cruel and heartless sects grow - because they are based on rules and regulations and the simple formula of good crossing out bad. If you do more good than bad then you go to "paradise."
And Christianity completely rejects this idea. Jesus calls us to live in freedom.
Jesus fulfills the law. The Old Testament Jews were told to give 10% and Jesus taught the Christians to give generously of all that they had. 10% was mandated by a rule - 100% was the freedom that Christians found in Christ.
In the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes the commandments that the Pharisees had gotten so wrong and he shows them what was actually meant and he challenges the people to live in a better and more generous way.
And Jesus says, "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." and this is so painfully radical, because the Pharisees were good. Now - they were empty and they didn't understand, but they were good people. It's easy for us - and I do this all the time - to think of the Pharisees as being bad people. But they really tried to be good. Just as good as they had to be. Jesus is telling the crowd that if these are the most faithful men that you know, you better be a lot more faithful than they are if you want to EARN your way into heaven. Its not about the rules. It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ. If this is confusing - come and talk with me or Volodya or the Ericas or anyone from our servant group and we will try and explain this better.
The Pharisees were faithful to the rules. Jesus wanted them to be faithful to God.
There is a huge difference between being faithful to the rules and being faithful to God. God might call you to break all the rules. God might call you to marry a prostitute. You might end up in prison for following where God leads you. Stranger things have happened. This is the freedom that Christ asks us to embrace - we aren't asked to be faithful to the rules, we are asked to be faithful to God.
Amen.
Matthew 5:17-25
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.
---
Whenever we speak, it seems that people hear what they want to hear. Every time I preach, I pray the quick prayer, "Lord, that thing that you do between my mouth and their ears - do it again today." It amazes me when I hear people talk about what they learned from a sermon I preached. Because sometimes someone will get something great out of sermon ... but it totally wasn't what I thought I was trying to say. I love hearing the way that God uses my sermon in ways that I could never anticipate.
If someone stands in the city center and yells out "Slava Ukraina" - there are perhaps three groups of hearers.
- perhaps some will hear who share the patriotism who will respond "Heroim Slava"
- perhaps there will be some who are of a different political position who will hear only nationalistic propaganda
- and perhaps there will be some foreigners who will just wonder why people are shouting.
When Jesus stood up to speak, the crowd was not all of one mind. We all love Jesus - and so, it is easy to picture a crowd forming around Jesus of adoring disciples: gently and quietly listening, hanging on his every word. But this probably wasn't the case. Throughout the scripture, the crowd surrounding Jesus is painted as more of an unruly mob than a gentle flock. The Pharisees and Sadducees were brooding with their arms crossed and the fanatics were throwing themselves at Jesus to be healed and perhaps only those who were slightly skeptical were sitting gently and listening intently.
So everyone heard the words of Jesus differently, right?
- The Pharisees heard every word and they looked to find some way to twist it to make it sound like Jesus was going to destroy their religion.
- The fanatics were hoping that Jesus was really going to destroy the old religion and the way that it worked.
- The skeptical hoped for something better, but expected new and different rules.
and Jesus has to take all of these different ideas and unite them behind the truth ... which was different than what each group heard, right?
Many people called the Old Testament The Law and the Prophets. In this sentence Jesus comes close to saying that, but instead of "and" - he says "or". And this seems like such a tiny difference that we might skip over it - but it's key to the story. The Prophets sometimes seemed to say things that contradicted The Law. You don't get very far into the book of Hosea before reading that God told Hosea to marry a prostitute ... just, to put a radical example out there. If we just read a book of the Bible like Leviticus, it is really easy to get overwhelmed by rules and regulations - and in the Psalms David calls the law perfect, and then he talks about the Messiah who will come to save Israel ... and this is contradictory because it might seem that it was the laws that kept them clean and kept them close to God.
And the Pharisees they loved to sit for hours and argue over which of the laws were the lightest and which were the heaviest. Which were most important and which were least important. It was like a card game for the religious elite.
When Jesus uses "or" instead of and - he makes a very crucial point. Sometimes it seems that the law and the prophets contradict each other or have different ideas. Some of the laws were more important than another. The point that Jesus makes is that He is the one who brings it all together.
Jesus didn't come to destroy or abolish or remove the law
Jesus came to fulfill the law. He came to fulfill the prophecies.
Jesus is what holds the law and the prophets together. Jesus completes all of the law. The final words of The Law were the words that Jesus spoke on the cross. "It is finished."
All the rules, all the games, all the arguments about weightiness of laws, all the struggles about the contradiction. All of the religious games, they stayed up on that cross after Jesus was brought down. Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets. He gave them their full meaning. Jesus was the "Perfect Law" that the Psalmist had been talking about.
Because the Pharisees had made it their job to dissect and pull apart the laws. They worked to find loopholes. They knew how to follow the law to the letter, to walk right on the line and never cross it.
And Jesus takes the line away.
This is the point of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus takes all the arguments and changes and justifications that the Pharisees have made and he tears them apart.
---
It's easier to be told exactly what to do. Rules are easier than freedom. This is why Islam is growing and some cruel and heartless sects grow - because they are based on rules and regulations and the simple formula of good crossing out bad. If you do more good than bad then you go to "paradise."
And Christianity completely rejects this idea. Jesus calls us to live in freedom.
Jesus fulfills the law. The Old Testament Jews were told to give 10% and Jesus taught the Christians to give generously of all that they had. 10% was mandated by a rule - 100% was the freedom that Christians found in Christ.
In the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes the commandments that the Pharisees had gotten so wrong and he shows them what was actually meant and he challenges the people to live in a better and more generous way.
And Jesus says, "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." and this is so painfully radical, because the Pharisees were good. Now - they were empty and they didn't understand, but they were good people. It's easy for us - and I do this all the time - to think of the Pharisees as being bad people. But they really tried to be good. Just as good as they had to be. Jesus is telling the crowd that if these are the most faithful men that you know, you better be a lot more faithful than they are if you want to EARN your way into heaven. Its not about the rules. It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ. If this is confusing - come and talk with me or Volodya or the Ericas or anyone from our servant group and we will try and explain this better.
The Pharisees were faithful to the rules. Jesus wanted them to be faithful to God.
There is a huge difference between being faithful to the rules and being faithful to God. God might call you to break all the rules. God might call you to marry a prostitute. You might end up in prison for following where God leads you. Stranger things have happened. This is the freedom that Christ asks us to embrace - we aren't asked to be faithful to the rules, we are asked to be faithful to God.
Amen.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Hope and Glory
Haggai 2:1-9
In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say,
Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear.
For thus says the LORD of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts.
----
Buying bananas is hard work. It seems like it should be easy enough to buy bananas - but when you buy perfectly bright yellow bananas they seem to have aged by the time you bring them home. When my friend Bob was facing cancer, he always asked his doctor if he could still buy green bananas - if he still had enough time to watch them ripen, he was still healthy enough. My great aunt Mable was always searching for the best deal. She was tremendously wealthy, but she still wanted to save every cent she could - so she had a deal worked out with the shop keep that she would pay a little less if she would buy the bananas after they had turned brown.
And she would bring these bananas home from the store and they would just be brown and black and oozing out of the peel - and she would eat them with a spoon. And I remember asking her why she would buy something after it wasn't good anymore. And my great-aunt Mable, all 80 years of wisdom looked at me and said, "It might not look good anymore - but the riper it is, the sweeter it is. You'll never find a sweeter fruit than this banana." And she scooped out another spoonful for herself.
---
Around the world, our economies work on the backs of stock exchanges. Many of the world's billionaires made almost all of their money just by playing around with these markets. And the idea is simple, really - if you buy low and sell high, you'll make a lot of money. But, if it was simple - we would all be doing it and we would all be rich.
Because our human nature is to do the opposite. People who manage their own stocks tend to buy high and sell low. When everyone is excited and talking about a company - people pay huge sums of money to own part of it, but as soon as something goes wrong - those same people sell it for whatever they can get. The people who make money, they see struggling - bad companies and they see some small spark in them - some small piece of good news - and they invest in the fact that the future can't be as bad as the past.
---
We often quote the verse "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you." But we forget the context of this verse.
This is a prophecy to God's people as they are led into exile. For hundreds of years.
And yet, God has a plan for them.
---
The Old Testament is a history of exile. If we were to sit down and list out all the stories of the Bible together, we could put them into two groups. One group would have all the stories and poems and songs and prophecies that were written during the times when God's chosen people were on top - when they were in control of their own destiny and ruling themselves and worshiping in their own temple. And the other group would have all the stories and songs and poems and prophecies written about and by and for God's chosen people when it seemed like everything was lost.
And which of these two groups would be bigger?
God's people were in exile and in the wilderness and in slavery a lot more than we think. Even when they were in their homeland - it's a fifty-fifty split between good and terrible times.
If we split the Old Testament between the words for a lost and hurting people in exile and the words for ruling Israel - we would find that this is a book written for the lost and the hurting. This is a book written for the displaced. This is a book written for the disappointed.
In today's scripture God's people are in exile. Their lives are under the control of Babylon, but they have planned well and have been political enough to earn the right to rebuild some of their previous life.
They are rebuilding the temple in this passage - and the oldest among them still remember what the old temple looked like and they are heartbroken. This new temple could never compare with the old temple. Solomon had built the old temple and adorned it with gold and with silver - and it had been the center of who they were as a people.
The people mourned because it didn't look the same and it didn't feel the same and what's more - they were sure they it wouldn't ever be the same.
And God reminds the people that soon enough he will shake the earth - to shake the earth was understood as what God would do before the Messiah arrived. They were building this simple, humble temple to prepare for the Messiah.
And the Messiah was born in a barn. The new temple wasn't good enough for the people because it lacked silver and gold and God had the Messiah show up in a barn.
God has a sense of humor when we try and show off.
Because God reminds the people that all the gold and all the silver belong to God - and if this was the plan, certainly God could pack the temple with such riches - but God has something far greater in store.
Glory.
God intends to fill the temple with God's Glory.
Because this is the central issue - the people feel that the glory of the temple was theirs. They made it. They built it. They created it. It was gold that they gave. It belonged to their city. It was their temple and it's glory was theirs. Something they did made it a great place.
It was a temple that God never asked them to build, but they built it anyway.
And now God is asking the people to trust that God's Glory will be with them again in a bigger and grander way than they could ever imagine. And it's not about the temple they are building - its about the God that they are worshiping.
As Christians, we are a people of hope. We see hope in places where no one else does. We see hope for reconciliation in the darkest days of apartheid. We see hope for redemption in the hooker working the street. We see hope for a new and glorious temple among the ashes and rubble of what used to be.
We are a people of hope. We see the world in a different way than others.
We understand that the ripest, sweetest banana happens to look ugly from the outside. We understand that the right time to invest it all is when all seems lost. We understand that God has a plan for us even when all we can see our are chains and shackles as we are led away in captivity.
Dear friends, as we experience our time of exile and uncertainty - remember that God has promised us a way forward greater than we can envision. God has promised to show us God's glory.
Amen.
In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say,
Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear.
For thus says the LORD of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts.
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Buying bananas is hard work. It seems like it should be easy enough to buy bananas - but when you buy perfectly bright yellow bananas they seem to have aged by the time you bring them home. When my friend Bob was facing cancer, he always asked his doctor if he could still buy green bananas - if he still had enough time to watch them ripen, he was still healthy enough. My great aunt Mable was always searching for the best deal. She was tremendously wealthy, but she still wanted to save every cent she could - so she had a deal worked out with the shop keep that she would pay a little less if she would buy the bananas after they had turned brown.
And she would bring these bananas home from the store and they would just be brown and black and oozing out of the peel - and she would eat them with a spoon. And I remember asking her why she would buy something after it wasn't good anymore. And my great-aunt Mable, all 80 years of wisdom looked at me and said, "It might not look good anymore - but the riper it is, the sweeter it is. You'll never find a sweeter fruit than this banana." And she scooped out another spoonful for herself.
---
Around the world, our economies work on the backs of stock exchanges. Many of the world's billionaires made almost all of their money just by playing around with these markets. And the idea is simple, really - if you buy low and sell high, you'll make a lot of money. But, if it was simple - we would all be doing it and we would all be rich.
Because our human nature is to do the opposite. People who manage their own stocks tend to buy high and sell low. When everyone is excited and talking about a company - people pay huge sums of money to own part of it, but as soon as something goes wrong - those same people sell it for whatever they can get. The people who make money, they see struggling - bad companies and they see some small spark in them - some small piece of good news - and they invest in the fact that the future can't be as bad as the past.
---
We often quote the verse "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you." But we forget the context of this verse.
This is a prophecy to God's people as they are led into exile. For hundreds of years.
And yet, God has a plan for them.
---
The Old Testament is a history of exile. If we were to sit down and list out all the stories of the Bible together, we could put them into two groups. One group would have all the stories and poems and songs and prophecies that were written during the times when God's chosen people were on top - when they were in control of their own destiny and ruling themselves and worshiping in their own temple. And the other group would have all the stories and songs and poems and prophecies written about and by and for God's chosen people when it seemed like everything was lost.
And which of these two groups would be bigger?
God's people were in exile and in the wilderness and in slavery a lot more than we think. Even when they were in their homeland - it's a fifty-fifty split between good and terrible times.
If we split the Old Testament between the words for a lost and hurting people in exile and the words for ruling Israel - we would find that this is a book written for the lost and the hurting. This is a book written for the displaced. This is a book written for the disappointed.
In today's scripture God's people are in exile. Their lives are under the control of Babylon, but they have planned well and have been political enough to earn the right to rebuild some of their previous life.
They are rebuilding the temple in this passage - and the oldest among them still remember what the old temple looked like and they are heartbroken. This new temple could never compare with the old temple. Solomon had built the old temple and adorned it with gold and with silver - and it had been the center of who they were as a people.
The people mourned because it didn't look the same and it didn't feel the same and what's more - they were sure they it wouldn't ever be the same.
And God reminds the people that soon enough he will shake the earth - to shake the earth was understood as what God would do before the Messiah arrived. They were building this simple, humble temple to prepare for the Messiah.
And the Messiah was born in a barn. The new temple wasn't good enough for the people because it lacked silver and gold and God had the Messiah show up in a barn.
God has a sense of humor when we try and show off.
Because God reminds the people that all the gold and all the silver belong to God - and if this was the plan, certainly God could pack the temple with such riches - but God has something far greater in store.
Glory.
God intends to fill the temple with God's Glory.
Because this is the central issue - the people feel that the glory of the temple was theirs. They made it. They built it. They created it. It was gold that they gave. It belonged to their city. It was their temple and it's glory was theirs. Something they did made it a great place.
It was a temple that God never asked them to build, but they built it anyway.
And now God is asking the people to trust that God's Glory will be with them again in a bigger and grander way than they could ever imagine. And it's not about the temple they are building - its about the God that they are worshiping.
As Christians, we are a people of hope. We see hope in places where no one else does. We see hope for reconciliation in the darkest days of apartheid. We see hope for redemption in the hooker working the street. We see hope for a new and glorious temple among the ashes and rubble of what used to be.
We are a people of hope. We see the world in a different way than others.
We understand that the ripest, sweetest banana happens to look ugly from the outside. We understand that the right time to invest it all is when all seems lost. We understand that God has a plan for us even when all we can see our are chains and shackles as we are led away in captivity.
Dear friends, as we experience our time of exile and uncertainty - remember that God has promised us a way forward greater than we can envision. God has promised to show us God's glory.
Amen.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
What we get wrong.
[I will be doing a short sermon series looking at the sermon on the mount and the ways that we misunderstand or only partially understand these words. Sometimes our culture is so removed from Jesus' culture that it is easy to miss the point. I hope that through these sermons, the students and young people will be challenged to live their faith more publicly.]
Matthew 5:11-16
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
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Matthew 5:11-16
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
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When we think of salt - what's the first thing that we
think of? It's probably the taste. It’s the way that salt makes food tasty. It's easy to read this verse, and to think
that this is the point that Jesus is making - that we as Christians make life
more flavorful. And this is partly
correct.
But when Jesus spoke to the crowd, their ideas about
salt were a little bit different than ours.
Salt was used to preserve foods.
The people knew that fish would rot after a day or two - but when they were
packed in salt they would last for a very long time.
Salt did something to the food, to make the bad go
away.
Our lives are filled with light. When the electricity goes off, we still have
hours of power on our phones or other gadgets.
There is a flashlight on my phone that is always available. I'm never in the dark.
Did you know that scholars believe that 100 years ago
people used to sleep differently than we do now? Many scholars believe that people went to bed
when it got dark, slept for a few hours, woke up for a few hours, and then went
back to bed for a few hours. We have
more hours of dark than our bodies need sleep and this is what our bodies
naturally do without the distraction of lights and Facebook.
Being afraid of the dark is common enough for children
- but even most adults can be frightened if they are found in absolute
darkness. [turn off all the lights] The Old Testament talks about hospitality and
welcoming strangers so often, because the alternative was horrifying. If you were caught outside outside of the
city at night, it was a world of absolute darkness. It was the light that would save you.
In days when
walking between cities could take a full day - the only option was to leave
early in the morning and hope to make it there by nightfall. Imagine that you have walked the whole day,
and night has come. You are still on the
roads - the places where thieves and robbers thrive and where wild beasts own
the streets – how do you know that the city is close? If it is a city on a hill
- you are entirely dependent on the lights in the city to guide your way. If you are traveling in the dark, the light
of the city is your only hope and your only salvation.
The light is the only thing that could make the bad go
away.
When Jesus calls us to be salt and light, He is
calling us to be more than a tasty treat or a modern convenience.
He is calling us to help make the bad go away. He is calling us to live out our faith in
such a way, that we make the world better by pushing out what is evil. When we are called to be salt and light we
are called to save people.
Because what’s the point of unsalty salt – it’s just a
rock at that point. It can’t keep food
from spoiling and it can’t make food taste better. A city on a hill hidden is a death sentence
to those searching for the city.
Christianity sucks when it is self centered. When the whole point of a Christian's life
focuses on making himself better or getting rid of all the sin in her life or
figuring out what his personal theology is on the subject of how many angels
can fit on the point of pin - when Christians focus on themselves instead of
others, Christians get really ugly.
When we focus on ourselves and our main goal is to
save what we had and what we were instead of focusing on the people around us -
we cave in on ourselves. We want to grow
as a ministry not because we like having a full room, but because we honestly
believe in the Jesus that we talk about.
We honestly believe that Jesus saves people from all the ugliness and
sin that the world has to offer. And we
honestly believe that Jesus uses us to help make that a reality.
No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a
bowl. [Put candle under glass bowl] I
have read this for years and thought – “well, of course, no one can see the lit
lamp under the bowl. What a shame that
everyone misses out on that light.
But this week I’ve been thinking about this more and
more.
What happens when the candle is put under a bowl? Well – for a while it is hidden - but we chose a clear glass bowl to show what
everyone listening to Jesus would have understood.
After a little bit of time, the lamp will go out. Once the oxygen is gone, the candle will go
out. If we hid the light of Jesus Christ
under a bowl – it keeps that light from those around us --- but it also
destroys the light that we have. We can
only keep this to ourselves for so long.
But when it’s on a lamp stand, it can provide a great
light to everyone around and it doesn’t burn out.
Jesus calls us to be salt and light. And that means that we must go out of this
place and live out what we honestly believe.
We have friends who are hurting and in pain. People that we love are struggling and
failing. And God wants us to make their
bad go away. It’s for them – that they
might find the light of Christ – but it’s for us as well. If we don’t live out our faith it slowly
fades away.
God wants us to be salt and light and to challenge
what is wrong and to make it good.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement,
had three general rules that he asked the people to follow.
Do no harm.
Do good.
Stay in love with God.
These simple rules are a powerful force against the
darkness of this world, don't you think?
I want us to read these verses again. I started with this verse for a reason. When we step up and work to make the bad go
away ... there will be a lot more bad first.
When we stand up for what we believe in, it is not always popular. If it was popular and easy, everyone would be
doing it. But Jesus reminds us that our
reward is in heaven. There is tremendous
joy in seeing someone's life changed from sadness and darkness to great
light. There is joy in being salt and
preserving the good and casting out the bad.
But, it is often painful and difficult.
Jesus wants us to do it anyway.
Dear friends, go forth this day - and be salt and
light. Find the real places where you
can do good, and do it.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
The Gospel for All - a devotional.
Luke tells the story best, the story of all.
The ladies around town had gossiped about Elizabeth's barren womb for decades - and now God blesses her with a child who will prepare the way for the Messiah. The rumors are just beginning, however, for Mary, the frightened teenager.
We tell the story that there was no room at the inn - but this is a euphemism. These weren't hotels. These were the homes of Joseph's relatives - family who rejected the unwed teenage mother out of shame and disgust. The one who finally showed pity on her only offered a stable space, good enough for a girl such as this. Our pretty ceramic nativity scenes don't capture the filth and sorrow of this story, and they miss the goodness for the same reason.
In this place - the place of shame and darkness and disgust - the Christ child entered the world.
The angels chose the poorest and lowliest sheep-herders to bear witness - the kind of workers who would have been on TV multiple times describing what the tornado sounded like. Certainly no group could be less trustworthy for such a task than shepherds. God's star led wise and respected men to the young boy born in a trough. Their gifts were extravagant burial items meant for an aged king, but they give them to the child-King anyway.
The young and the old. The rich and the poor. Men and women. Jews and gentiles. The religiously pure and the sin-stained. If we could only read the first two chapters of Luke's Gospel, we would know only two things for certain - this Jesus is the Messiah and this Messiah came for all.
We must each decide in our own hearts, if we will be a church that rejoices in the Gospel for all or if we will hold onto our prejudices and fears. Will we reject those that society rejects or will we be a people who believe and live out the good news that our Gospel is for all?
Luke 1:37 "no word from God will ever fail."
The ladies around town had gossiped about Elizabeth's barren womb for decades - and now God blesses her with a child who will prepare the way for the Messiah. The rumors are just beginning, however, for Mary, the frightened teenager.
We tell the story that there was no room at the inn - but this is a euphemism. These weren't hotels. These were the homes of Joseph's relatives - family who rejected the unwed teenage mother out of shame and disgust. The one who finally showed pity on her only offered a stable space, good enough for a girl such as this. Our pretty ceramic nativity scenes don't capture the filth and sorrow of this story, and they miss the goodness for the same reason.
In this place - the place of shame and darkness and disgust - the Christ child entered the world.
The angels chose the poorest and lowliest sheep-herders to bear witness - the kind of workers who would have been on TV multiple times describing what the tornado sounded like. Certainly no group could be less trustworthy for such a task than shepherds. God's star led wise and respected men to the young boy born in a trough. Their gifts were extravagant burial items meant for an aged king, but they give them to the child-King anyway.
The young and the old. The rich and the poor. Men and women. Jews and gentiles. The religiously pure and the sin-stained. If we could only read the first two chapters of Luke's Gospel, we would know only two things for certain - this Jesus is the Messiah and this Messiah came for all.
We must each decide in our own hearts, if we will be a church that rejoices in the Gospel for all or if we will hold onto our prejudices and fears. Will we reject those that society rejects or will we be a people who believe and live out the good news that our Gospel is for all?
Luke 1:37 "no word from God will ever fail."
Thursday, October 24, 2013
I'm often struck by the shear absurdity of a situation. Volodya and I were walking through the park and this dog came up to us - it was smaller than a chihuahua but featured ear hair that dragged on the ground. I almost wet myself I was laughing so hard. Apparently it's a very expensive breed of dog - someone actually paid money for it!
It seems that life is filled with moments to celebrate and laugh.
It's easy to miss these moments. It's so easy to get bogged down in the details of the day and to forget to just celebrate life.
It's never wrong to celebrate life. I think that we forget this. We try to be solemn and lead meaningful lives, but only laughter leads to a meaningful life.
Losing another dear friend to cancer has been hard on me. It's hard to not be home and not be with people and you never feel like you've mourned well - but I write again and again the simple yet profound statement that if you fill your life with extraordinary people your life will be extraordinarily full.
Fill you life with good and kind and joyful people. You won't go wrong. Your life will be more good and kind and joyful for it.
It seems that life is filled with moments to celebrate and laugh.
It's easy to miss these moments. It's so easy to get bogged down in the details of the day and to forget to just celebrate life.
It's never wrong to celebrate life. I think that we forget this. We try to be solemn and lead meaningful lives, but only laughter leads to a meaningful life.
Losing another dear friend to cancer has been hard on me. It's hard to not be home and not be with people and you never feel like you've mourned well - but I write again and again the simple yet profound statement that if you fill your life with extraordinary people your life will be extraordinarily full.
Fill you life with good and kind and joyful people. You won't go wrong. Your life will be more good and kind and joyful for it.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
A sermon based on an Henri Nouwen quote
[I read this beautiful quote, and decided that I wanted to flesh it out a bit for a sermon for our series on the Kingdom of God.]
We belong to a generation that wants to see the results of our work. We want to be productive and see with our own eyes what we have made. But that is not the way of God's Kingdom. Often our witness for God does not lead to tangible results. Jesus himself died as a failure on a cross. There was no success there to be proud of. Still, the fruitfulness of Jesus' life is beyond any human measure. As faithful witnesses of Jesus we have to trust that our lives too will be fruitful, even though we cannot see their fruit. The fruit of our lives may be visible only to those who live after us. What is important is how well we love. God will make our love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not. – Henri Nouwen
We belong to a generation that wants to see the results of our work. We want to be productive and see with our own eyes what we have made. But that is not the way of God's Kingdom. Often our witness for God does not lead to tangible results. Jesus himself died as a failure on a cross. There was no success there to be proud of. Still, the fruitfulness of Jesus' life is beyond any human measure. As faithful witnesses of Jesus we have to trust that our lives too will be fruitful, even though we cannot see their fruit. The fruit of our lives may be visible only to those who live after us. What is important is how well we love. God will make our love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not. – Henri Nouwen
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What is success? How do we define success? Throughout history, as one empire has risen and fallen after another, it seems that they have all tried to become the biggest and the best. American author David Sedaris wrote that his biggest shock after moving to France was that no country's motto was "We're number two!" He was shocked to find that French people really felt their country was better than America. And although most Ukrainians are realist enough to state that we may not be the best country in the world, we certainly have a long list of things that we are best at. Even grandmothers are quick to remind us that Ukrainian girls are the most beautiful in the world. We have the best salo. The list goes on and on.
For your mother, success is grandchildren. For many of your colleagues, success is making more money than most of your colleagues. To have a bigger house, a bigger military, a bigger paycheck, a bigger police force. The way that we define success is pretty clear, isn't it. Bigger, more, better. We belong to a generation that wants to see the results of
our work. We want to be productive and see with our own eyes what we have made.
We are promised that if we work hard, all of these things will be delivered to us. That we deserve these measures of success for our hard work.
But that is not the way of God's Kingdom.
Let's read John 19:16-30
What is successful about this passage? How does this compare to our understanding of success, productivity, and power? Jesus himself died as a failure on a
cross. There is perhaps no greater failure in society's eyes than being executed by the state for criminal behavior. There was no success there to be proud of. In America, we regrettably execute a tremendous number of criminals. But, we justify this by claiming that all of these people are beyond redemption and a serious threat to the people. Jesus was executed as an enemy of the state, because he was a threat to the people. He was executed for his promise to raise up a new Kingdom, one that would destroy the empire that surrounded it. And as the soldiers mocked him that day, they certainly felt that the threat of his coming Kingdom had certainly passed. He had failed at his mission. He would be forgotten to history, just another failure in the footnotes of history.
Often our witness for God does not lead to tangible results.
Still, the fruitfulness of Jesus' life is beyond any human
measure. As faithful witnesses of Jesus we have to trust that our lives too
will be fruitful, even though we cannot see their fruit. The fruit of our lives
may be visible only to those who live after us.
"Two for each guest, that's our policy" she responded without looking up.
The governor was taken aback and obviously offended. He angrily looked at her and demanded, "Do you know who I am? I am the governor of this state. I control the budgets for thousands of employees, have a staff of over one hundred people, and received more than sixty percent of the vote - now, I'll ask again - Can I have another piece of chicken?"
The woman looked back at him with the same ferocity and responded, "Do you know who I am? I'm the woman who is dishing out the fried chicken, and I told you that you already got your two pieces, so you can just move along now."
This is a humorous story of a woman standing up to the powers that be. What would it take for us to stand up to the powers that surround us? We have this idea in our heads too often that we are powerless to change things, that we are too small and powerless to make a difference. We too often forget that 1 plus God is always a majority. What if we really began to stand up agains the corruption and bribery that make our hard earned diplomas less valuable?
Years later, I'm close friends with that woman ... she and I are collegues in ministry. I think about how much that experience impacted my call into ministry and how much her courage continues to shape me. I'm sure that none of the good men and women who have influenced me over the years fully understand the impact they have had on me. Few of us understand the ways that we are slowly and surely changing the world.
Because when we can see beyond the trappings of the Empires that we live in - when we can see beyond the costumes and offices and business lunches and politicians - we can begin to see the glory of God and God's Kingdom. When we look past the busy work and study schedules that trap us we can see the plans that God has for us. When we can see beyond the Empire that insists we work hard to make more money to buy stuff we don't need to impress people we don't like we can begin to see what really matters in the Kingdom of God.
What is important is how well we love.
This is the only thing that matters in the Kingdom of God. Our task is to love and God will take care of the rest.
God will make our love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not.
Amen.
This is the only thing that matters in the Kingdom of God. Our task is to love and God will take care of the rest.
God will make our love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not.
Amen.
Put your nets down
[This is a four part sermon that Pastor Volodya and I will preach at Pilgrims tonight. I am second and fourth, and while I have an idea what Volodya will preach about, I'm not entirely sure what direction he will go. The altar will be covered with a fishing net, and at the end students will be invited to come forward and place fish into the coils of the net to represent the things that they need to give to God to be able to become a "fisher of men(catcher of people in Ukrainian). Enjoy.]
Let me paint this picture for you. It's easy to forget where we are in the story - we see all the way to the end. When we read the Bible we see all that has come after it, we see that Christianity is the largest religion in the world - that it has transformed the entire world and that things are better and better as the Kingdom of God continues to spread. Let me paint a picture for you of what these disciples saw.
Jesus has just been baptized. The people who were there, they swear that they heard the very voice of God - but those were all the crazy people who had followed John into the desert to hear him preach. Jesus has just returned from the wilderness - where he didn't eat for forty days. Jesus comes out of the desert place, and you can count his ribs he is so emaciated and Jesus comes up to you and asks you to follow him - to become like him. What is your response?
Jesus goes to two brothers who are fast at work and he offers them an invitation. "Follow me and I will make you catchers of people." And two more brothers - James and John - are sitting with their father in the boat and Jesus calls them and they drop their nets and follow Jesus.
I think it's really important that we think about fishing for a minute. When I think of a fisherman, my first thought is always of the people I saw fishing as a child. They would go to the river or a lake and they would have a fishing pole and they would cast out their line and wait until something took the bait.
Every fisherman has a story about the fish that was "this big."
But, these men were fishermen as a career. The lived on their boats, they cast their nets hundreds of times a day - and sometimes were successful and sometimes they weren't - but when they didn't catch anything, their families went hungry.
This wasn't an occassional past time for leisurely men - this was their work, this was in their blood, this was their whole life.
I think one of the problems with America Christianity is we read this verse - and in English it reads literally "fishers of men" - and we get the image of our modern American fisherman. Someone who from time to time throws a line out and tries to bring in one fish or a few.
And this is not the picture that Jesus is painting at all. Jesus calls these men to always be about catching people. Jesus calls them to live their whole lives preaching the Gospel, sharing their stories, and welcoming people into the arms of God and into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus calls us to throw the nets out wider and wider, to welcome all people in, to invite everyone to sing a new song - a song of joy and hope. Jesus calls us to be catchers of people - that in everything we do, in ever conversation we have and cup of tea we share to bring our companions just a little closer to God. To let them just see a tiny slice of the Kingdom of Heaven.
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Jesus asks these men to give up everything - to give up their jobs and their families and their livelyhoods and to follow him And these men drop their nets and they follow Jesus.
Jesus calls these men to drop their nets. To put down what they are doing.
There was nothing wrong or sinful about fishing. Jesus didn't pull these men away from their fishing nets out of disgust for their work. Jesus looked at these men, and he asked them to put their nets down because he had something better for them in mind.
Jesus called them to something higher - to something greater. Jesus called them to do the same thing they had always done, but for a better reason and a higher purpose. With these twelve men Jesus changed the world. With these twelve men, Jesus turned the world upside down and made it right.
Jesus calls us to drop our nets.
Jesus calls us to think about what we are doing and why we are doing it. If we are studying and working so that we can have a big apartment and a nice car and respect from important people - then God has something better for you. God wants you to do everything for the glory of God.
What keeps you from dropping your net? What is holding you back from inviting others. And I don't just mean inviting people to come to worship here - which we certainly want you to do - but I mean this in a bigger sense. What keeps you from sharing your faith? What prevents you from talking about what God does in your life? What holds you back?
Tonight we have a net up here on the altar and lots of fish. During our prayer time and our closing song - I want us to think and pray about what keeps us from dropping our nets. Maybe it's pride. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's sickness. Write all of these things on different fish and bring them up here to our altar and put them into the net. Allow God to hold onto those things so that you don't have to. Let God have them so that you can put your net down and begin a life as a catcher of people.
Amen.
Let me paint this picture for you. It's easy to forget where we are in the story - we see all the way to the end. When we read the Bible we see all that has come after it, we see that Christianity is the largest religion in the world - that it has transformed the entire world and that things are better and better as the Kingdom of God continues to spread. Let me paint a picture for you of what these disciples saw.
Jesus has just been baptized. The people who were there, they swear that they heard the very voice of God - but those were all the crazy people who had followed John into the desert to hear him preach. Jesus has just returned from the wilderness - where he didn't eat for forty days. Jesus comes out of the desert place, and you can count his ribs he is so emaciated and Jesus comes up to you and asks you to follow him - to become like him. What is your response?
Jesus goes to two brothers who are fast at work and he offers them an invitation. "Follow me and I will make you catchers of people." And two more brothers - James and John - are sitting with their father in the boat and Jesus calls them and they drop their nets and follow Jesus.
I think it's really important that we think about fishing for a minute. When I think of a fisherman, my first thought is always of the people I saw fishing as a child. They would go to the river or a lake and they would have a fishing pole and they would cast out their line and wait until something took the bait.
Every fisherman has a story about the fish that was "this big."
But, these men were fishermen as a career. The lived on their boats, they cast their nets hundreds of times a day - and sometimes were successful and sometimes they weren't - but when they didn't catch anything, their families went hungry.
This wasn't an occassional past time for leisurely men - this was their work, this was in their blood, this was their whole life.
I think one of the problems with America Christianity is we read this verse - and in English it reads literally "fishers of men" - and we get the image of our modern American fisherman. Someone who from time to time throws a line out and tries to bring in one fish or a few.
And this is not the picture that Jesus is painting at all. Jesus calls these men to always be about catching people. Jesus calls them to live their whole lives preaching the Gospel, sharing their stories, and welcoming people into the arms of God and into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus calls us to throw the nets out wider and wider, to welcome all people in, to invite everyone to sing a new song - a song of joy and hope. Jesus calls us to be catchers of people - that in everything we do, in ever conversation we have and cup of tea we share to bring our companions just a little closer to God. To let them just see a tiny slice of the Kingdom of Heaven.
----
Jesus asks these men to give up everything - to give up their jobs and their families and their livelyhoods and to follow him And these men drop their nets and they follow Jesus.
Jesus calls these men to drop their nets. To put down what they are doing.
There was nothing wrong or sinful about fishing. Jesus didn't pull these men away from their fishing nets out of disgust for their work. Jesus looked at these men, and he asked them to put their nets down because he had something better for them in mind.
Jesus called them to something higher - to something greater. Jesus called them to do the same thing they had always done, but for a better reason and a higher purpose. With these twelve men Jesus changed the world. With these twelve men, Jesus turned the world upside down and made it right.
Jesus calls us to drop our nets.
Jesus calls us to think about what we are doing and why we are doing it. If we are studying and working so that we can have a big apartment and a nice car and respect from important people - then God has something better for you. God wants you to do everything for the glory of God.
What keeps you from dropping your net? What is holding you back from inviting others. And I don't just mean inviting people to come to worship here - which we certainly want you to do - but I mean this in a bigger sense. What keeps you from sharing your faith? What prevents you from talking about what God does in your life? What holds you back?
Tonight we have a net up here on the altar and lots of fish. During our prayer time and our closing song - I want us to think and pray about what keeps us from dropping our nets. Maybe it's pride. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's sickness. Write all of these things on different fish and bring them up here to our altar and put them into the net. Allow God to hold onto those things so that you don't have to. Let God have them so that you can put your net down and begin a life as a catcher of people.
Amen.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
I have this memory, it's one of my first memories from my earliest childhood. My sister and cousins and I were going to put together a skit to entertain the family. The basic plot was that we were going to sing a kids song the boring old way, and then we were going to do it as a rap and make it "cool" and "hip." I was maybe four, and I was going to pop out of a box and start the rap.
And it came time for that, and I popped out of the box - and I started to sing the song in the old way. The way that they had just finished it. The wrong way. And my cousins, who were all almost a decade older than me, they all laughed at yelled at me and then we all did the rap together and everyone clapped and said it was wonderful.
And to this day, I'm still afraid to start a song first. I'm still afraid to start singing at the wrong time, or the wrong song, or the wrong words. Oh, I'll sing any song, and I'll sing with you just as loud as you want - but I won't start it ... and if I do, it's with a lot of fear and trepidation.
The Kingdom of God, it calls us to sing a new song. Jesus preached his first sermon, and all of his sermons from then on, about the Kingdom of Heaven.
[Read Matthew 11:28-12:7]
Jesus preaches a radically different message than those who had come before him. Jesus offers that the people take up his yoke. What is a yoke?
And it came time for that, and I popped out of the box - and I started to sing the song in the old way. The way that they had just finished it. The wrong way. And my cousins, who were all almost a decade older than me, they all laughed at yelled at me and then we all did the rap together and everyone clapped and said it was wonderful.
And to this day, I'm still afraid to start a song first. I'm still afraid to start singing at the wrong time, or the wrong song, or the wrong words. Oh, I'll sing any song, and I'll sing with you just as loud as you want - but I won't start it ... and if I do, it's with a lot of fear and trepidation.
The Kingdom of God, it calls us to sing a new song. Jesus preached his first sermon, and all of his sermons from then on, about the Kingdom of Heaven.
[Read Matthew 11:28-12:7]
Jesus preaches a radically different message than those who had come before him. Jesus offers that the people take up his yoke. What is a yoke?
This is a yoke. It's the thing that oxen use. It is used to drag heavy objects. But it also binds them together. But a yoke is also the term that rabbi's would use to describe the knowledge they gave their students. If you remember this bit of trivia, it will become part of the yoke that I have shared with you - and we are bound together by this and it helps us to pull the harder and more difficult things.
And Jesus specifically states that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
And this is an odd statement. It's a contradiction. It's like saying "the elephant in the room (cлон в посудній лавці, слон в китайському магазинчикуслон у воротах, ) - who has gone on a diet and is really thin now." It takes all of the punch and the power out of the word picture.
And it is directly following this, that Jesus and his disciples walk across a wheat field, and his hungry disciples pick a few pieces of wheat, rub them between their hands, and eat them. How many, well - less than "a baby lamb could fit in its mouth - that's how many.
Wait. What? What is that supposed to mean?
Well, this is the Kingdom of God that Jesus comes a'preaching. This is the new thing. Because the Jewish religion had become a constant barrage of rules and regulations.
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus was promoting this new "easy yoke, with a light burden" they were certain that he just meant that people could do whatever they wanted - and they were going to make sure that it was known that he and his disciples were terrible, filthy sinners.
They just had to follow them around long enough and eventually they would catch them in a sin.
And the disciples begin to pick wheat directly from the stalk of SOMEONE ELSE's wheat. So - they have stolen - but the Bible had actually addressed this very concern. It was allowed for someone to take and eat the grain from someone's field as long as they were hungry and did it by hand, and didn't use a sickle or scythe to cut it down.
But, this wasn't clear enough, because someone with a thousand slaves could come to your farm, and pick all of your wheat by hand - so over the thousands of years, different rabies and pharisees, and lawyers wrote and re-wrote these laws. And it had been decided after much debate that each person could lawfully pick one baby lamb's mouthful of wheat off of someone else's land - as long as they did it by hand - and as long as they were hungry.
Rules, right?!?!
So, the disciples hadn't broken the commandment to not steal - but the Pharisees remembered that it was the Sabbath, the day of rest - and while it had been decided that picking the wheat and eating it on the day of rest was allowed - they disciples were rubbing the grains inbetween their hands - using their hands as tools - and this was technically a sin on the Sabbath! Ah ha! They finally had their trap - and they were ready to condemn the disciples, and their teacher Jesus right along with them.
And Jesus, he just eviscerates them. He uses the Bible to tear each argument apart - and he ends up at this startling accusation,
I desire compassion and not a sacrifice.
These men of the law, they had no compassion. They had no feelings of good will toward these disciples, they were just looking for some loophole to trap them in so that they could show how much better they were than Jesus' disciples.
Jesus took all of these rules, and the rules that were written about the rules written about the rules - and he reinvigorates them all. He doesn't get rid of the rule, but he reinterprets it so that the people could understand them as God originally meant them.
Jesus was an interpreter, a translator. He took these ancient laws, and he interpreted them so that people could understand what God had meant. Jesus took almost each of the ten commandments, and redefined them in the Gospels. In this story, he radically redefines the commandment about observing the Sabbath (sixth in our system - fifth in yours?) - that God made the Sabbath so that we could rest and relax and reconnect with God, not so that we would be slaves to keeping the observance.
Because the rules, they keep us safe. But God's grace - it sets us free.
Maybe it's easier to keep the rules. It's easier when everything is black and white and you can find loopholes. It seems like most of the time when people talk to Jesus they are trying to find some loophole. And over and over again, Jesus tries to explain that there aren't any loopholes.
Love. Love them. Love your enemy. Jesus doesn't care how often they've been mean to you - you forgive them in your heart, and you pray for them, and you learn to love them. You can disagree - you can stand up against, you can speak out against - but that has to come from a place of love.
The second that you feel your adversary is someone other than the devil, you have been fooled by your true adversary. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Every second you allow your heart and soul to spend energy on hating someone is a moment that you have lost. Hating someone is like drinking poison and then waiting for the other person to die.
The Kingdom of God calls us to love. When we love those who hate us - we expand that Kingdom just a little bit. Do you get that? Do you understand that? This Kingdom of God is already here, but we are still building it. We are still praying for it to come. When we choose to forgive and to live in Christ's love - we expand that Kingdom.
Thursday, September 05, 2013
I've always liked John the Baptist. Even as a child he was one of my favorite Bible characters. John the Baptist was kind of a hipster when you think about it. My understanding of hipster is the people who do things that no one else is doing - and that was John the Baptist. Maybe he was the original hipster and everyone else is just a copycat.
"I started wearing clothes made from camel hair long before it was cool." "Yeah, I'm going to this really cool little eatery - they only serve raw foods, only bugs and honey. You've probably never heard of it."
John the Baptist, he was the inviter. He invited people to come and see. To come and taste. To come and experience.
But when Jesus shows up, and says that he wants this whole "baptism" thing that John has essentially created out of nowhere - John is taken aback. Because while John has always done his own thing, he knows that Jesus is special. Jesus who was born of a virgin. Jesus who was so wise even as a child. Jesus, who was possibly the Messiah that the people had been waiting for.
My sister and always fought to see who would be first. For decades, it was like we were playing one giant game to see who was smarter, faster, better, and more beloved by our parents. My sister was four years older than me, so she was smarter than me for a long time. Not anymore of course, but for a long time she was! And one time we were sitting in the car while mom went to the bank, and this very fat woman walked in front of the car. Rebecca made a really funny joke about this woman's name - it rhymed with Bumble bee and so it was funny - and I laughed a lot. I was maybe only four or five, so it didn't take much to make me laugh. Mom came out of the bank at the same time as this woman, and as she got in the car I yelled out the joke so that mom could laugh, too. But my mom didn't think the joke was funny ... and when we got home I got the wooden spoon. And Rebecca won another point in our little game.
But what is really wonderful is that my sister and I have grown up, and we never play this game anymore. Oh, sometimes we joke about it, but now we focus so much more on how we can help each other become better. I remember when she was in grad school and we would drive somewhere and I would quiz her on medical terms for hours. And today she supports this ministry every month so that we can finish the remodel of our new student center. This is what friends do, and this is how John and Jesus treat each other.
And John and Jesus have this little fight - because John knows he has been preparing the way for Jesus and wants Jesus to baptise him. But Jesus insists on being baptized by John. That it may be so.
We're going to pause for a few minutes, and everyone is going to get the name of someone famous placed on their backs. You can only ask yes or no questions - and your job is to figure out who you are.
[we will encourage people to walk around and introduce themselves to anyone they don't know.]
Here is where we are in the story. Everyone was trying to figure out who Jesus was. Do you hear the description John gives of the one who is to come? (John 3:11-12) How would you like this introduction? Whenever I'm introduced to someone and they explain that I speak Ukrainian I get really nervous ... because now there is lots of pressure to speak Ukrainian well. And I always think about this when I read the description John gives - because it is at this moment that Jesus shows up.
To be baptised.
Baptism is such a special thing. Think back to the last time you were at a baptism. Were you struck by how holy that moment was? Even if the parents were perhaps not so very religious - still it was this tremendous moment of covenant with God.
And as Jesus is baptised,heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
This is the moment - the moment when God declares in audible voice that Jesus is the son of God. That this Kingdom of God thing is really real and that the prince is here to bring it.
I was twelve when I was baptized. And I remember waiting for the magic to happen. I remember in Sunday School talking about baptism and being nervous about it because it seemed like a magical thing. I remember just waiting for something magical to happen. I thought maybe I would never sin again.
And all of these years later, I am struck by how very magical that moment was. It was a covenant. When I told my parents that year that I wanted to go across the ocean and be a missionary, because of my baptism they knew that I would go where God wanted me to go.
This is one of the first moments in the Bible where God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all mentioned together - that they are all operating in their unique way - and yet all together.
This is the great beginning of the Kingdom of God. How many of you fully understand the trinity? I mean ... we get it ... but we don't fully understand it. Jesus was fully God and fully man. We don't fully understandit. The Kingdom of Heaven is already here. It's something that we don't fully understand, but that we live in and enjoy.
We live in this Kingdom, here and now, and yet we fight for this Kingdom to come.
Over these next few months, we are going to explore Matthew's Gospel. We are going to explore the Kingdom of God and what it means for us today.
Amen.
"I started wearing clothes made from camel hair long before it was cool." "Yeah, I'm going to this really cool little eatery - they only serve raw foods, only bugs and honey. You've probably never heard of it."
John the Baptist, he was the inviter. He invited people to come and see. To come and taste. To come and experience.
But when Jesus shows up, and says that he wants this whole "baptism" thing that John has essentially created out of nowhere - John is taken aback. Because while John has always done his own thing, he knows that Jesus is special. Jesus who was born of a virgin. Jesus who was so wise even as a child. Jesus, who was possibly the Messiah that the people had been waiting for.
My sister and always fought to see who would be first. For decades, it was like we were playing one giant game to see who was smarter, faster, better, and more beloved by our parents. My sister was four years older than me, so she was smarter than me for a long time. Not anymore of course, but for a long time she was! And one time we were sitting in the car while mom went to the bank, and this very fat woman walked in front of the car. Rebecca made a really funny joke about this woman's name - it rhymed with Bumble bee and so it was funny - and I laughed a lot. I was maybe only four or five, so it didn't take much to make me laugh. Mom came out of the bank at the same time as this woman, and as she got in the car I yelled out the joke so that mom could laugh, too. But my mom didn't think the joke was funny ... and when we got home I got the wooden spoon. And Rebecca won another point in our little game.
But what is really wonderful is that my sister and I have grown up, and we never play this game anymore. Oh, sometimes we joke about it, but now we focus so much more on how we can help each other become better. I remember when she was in grad school and we would drive somewhere and I would quiz her on medical terms for hours. And today she supports this ministry every month so that we can finish the remodel of our new student center. This is what friends do, and this is how John and Jesus treat each other.
And John and Jesus have this little fight - because John knows he has been preparing the way for Jesus and wants Jesus to baptise him. But Jesus insists on being baptized by John. That it may be so.
We're going to pause for a few minutes, and everyone is going to get the name of someone famous placed on their backs. You can only ask yes or no questions - and your job is to figure out who you are.
[we will encourage people to walk around and introduce themselves to anyone they don't know.]
Here is where we are in the story. Everyone was trying to figure out who Jesus was. Do you hear the description John gives of the one who is to come? (John 3:11-12) How would you like this introduction? Whenever I'm introduced to someone and they explain that I speak Ukrainian I get really nervous ... because now there is lots of pressure to speak Ukrainian well. And I always think about this when I read the description John gives - because it is at this moment that Jesus shows up.
To be baptised.
Baptism is such a special thing. Think back to the last time you were at a baptism. Were you struck by how holy that moment was? Even if the parents were perhaps not so very religious - still it was this tremendous moment of covenant with God.
And as Jesus is baptised,heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
This is the moment - the moment when God declares in audible voice that Jesus is the son of God. That this Kingdom of God thing is really real and that the prince is here to bring it.
I was twelve when I was baptized. And I remember waiting for the magic to happen. I remember in Sunday School talking about baptism and being nervous about it because it seemed like a magical thing. I remember just waiting for something magical to happen. I thought maybe I would never sin again.
And all of these years later, I am struck by how very magical that moment was. It was a covenant. When I told my parents that year that I wanted to go across the ocean and be a missionary, because of my baptism they knew that I would go where God wanted me to go.
This is one of the first moments in the Bible where God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all mentioned together - that they are all operating in their unique way - and yet all together.
This is the great beginning of the Kingdom of God. How many of you fully understand the trinity? I mean ... we get it ... but we don't fully understand it. Jesus was fully God and fully man. We don't fully understandit. The Kingdom of Heaven is already here. It's something that we don't fully understand, but that we live in and enjoy.
We live in this Kingdom, here and now, and yet we fight for this Kingdom to come.
Over these next few months, we are going to explore Matthew's Gospel. We are going to explore the Kingdom of God and what it means for us today.
Amen.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Fred Rogers, everyone's favorite children's television host, won a lifetime achievement Emmy in 1997. The award ceremony was a star studded gala. The room was packed with A-list celebrities, and Mr. Rogers - Reverend Fred Rogers as he was known in some circles - seemed to be out of place amid the sea of plastic faces, nip-tucked beauties, and people who wouldn't leave their movie-set trailer for less than $40,000. He kissed his pleasantly plump wife and walked up to the grand podium to give his acceptance speech.
He asked the people in the room to slowly think for ten seconds about the people who have had a strong, positive influence on them. He stood there in silence as he watched ten seconds on his clock.
The proud and mighty before him laughed nervously at this children's activity, until a few began to take the task seriously. In a matter of ten seconds, this large room full of Hollywood royalty had been reduced to tears of joy and hope as they remembered the people who shaped their lives and cared so deeply for them.
Can we pause to stop and think for ten seconds about the people who have shaped who we are today?
[10 seconds]
Wendell Berry wrote, "Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest."
Parents, teachers, pastors, Sunday School teachers, volunteers, tutors, nurses, the list goes on and on of people, professions, and volunteer opportunities to invest all that you are into the next generation, the next wave of people.
Jesus tells us that where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also. Jesus commands us to make purses for ourselves that will never wear out. What a beautiful image. What a challenging teaching.
What would it look like if we took our money out of investments that we couldn't ethically support, and invested that money into something greater and kinder? Would our hearts be so heavy? Would our purses wear out as quickly. This is true of the United Methodist church and pension portfolios, but it is also true of each of us and our meager savings. What if we took our money and invested in the millennium?
It amazes me how easily Christians jump on board with the idea of a pension and retirement account - our society demands that each person build a nest egg on which to retire - but this entire idea is contrary to our Gospel, isn't it? Jesus who called us to give ourselves away, who called us to not store up our treasure on earth, who called us to come and take up our cross, to come and follow him, to come and die. Jesus who died in his thirties because of his sacrificial love for us. It is this Jesus who calls us to invest more wisely in the things that genuinely matter.
Some years ago, we sat around a table at a administrative council meeting to discuss the church's annual budget. The pastor was a dear friend, and I only sat in on the meeting to learn how he did things. The budget that year was over a million dollars, but the pastors felt that too much of the budget was assigned to maintenance and not enough was given to mission and vision. The pastor asked this challenging questions, "If we were to take a vote today to close the doors and walk away from this church, how would you vote? The board was a mix of nervous laughter and outright offense. Churches with million dollar budgets don't close their doors. The pastor said, "Every vote that we take today is a vote to either close the doors in twenty years, or a vote to continue to be a beacon of the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this town. The board took a hard, line by line look at the budget an chose to move money around to create new ministries.
There is much talk in our United Methodist churches about how to move forward, how to attract and keep the next generation, how to reach out well and disciple a new generation of people who can make new disciples.
As a twenty something, I feel a tremendous amount of responsibility to help my church move forward and to help my church understand my generation. As a missionary, my full time job is to think about how the Gospel is presented so that those with a cultural background different than my own may be open to hear and receive the good news. Without this careful thought and planning, it is not mission work.
And this is precisely the problem. We have failed to engage this new generational-culture missionally. We have failed to stop, think, plan, and prepare how to best present the Gospel for their ears and hearts to hear.
I read this really interesting article on NBC news about nudists in America. The official nudist organizations are losing tremendous numbers of people from their membership roles. They aren't attracting enough new young people to replace the older ones.
And this article was so interesting to me because it sounded exactly like every article I've read about the decline of the United Methodist church.
Well, do we really believe that young people in America are less interested in being nude than older adults in America? No, that's lunacy. That's crazy. But they are less interested in being on a membership role.
Young people in America aren't any less interested in faith, or Jesus than their parents and grandparents. Most of my friends who are close to my age are people of tremendous faith and spirituality. Most friends my age have left the church.
They feel there isn't a place for them. They feel that something doesn't fit them.
I have one friend whose entire family is atheist - and he probably wouldn't fit in at most churches - but I keep reminding him that I think he would really like Jesus if he got to know Him.
As we talk about the future of the United Methodist church and young people in America - we must remember our highest calling is to share our faith. I want to challenge you to do something incredibly risky and dangerous and scary today. I want you to go home and plan a time to get together with a grandchild or child or other relative. Have them over for dinner or give them a call. I want you to share with the next generation why church and faith matter to you. You can invite them to join you in worship, but you don't have to beat them over the head with your religion. Just tell them your story. Tell them about a time when your faith made all the difference in your life. Tell them why your faith matters.
Think of your friends from this church who have gone on to glory - and think about their children and grandchildren. Invite them over or write a letter, and tell them how much your friend mattered to you and how much faith mattered to your friend. If they live in the area, invite them to join you in worship.
This is scary stuff - but this is what my generation desperately needs. We need to hear from people that we trust, that we can trust in Christ. We need to hear that the church is still open to us, and that we are still welcome to come back whenever we are ready.
Those people who you thought about, those people who invested in you - that was their choice. They made a decision to invest in you. This is your choice. This is your calling. This is our church's future.
Amen.
He asked the people in the room to slowly think for ten seconds about the people who have had a strong, positive influence on them. He stood there in silence as he watched ten seconds on his clock.
The proud and mighty before him laughed nervously at this children's activity, until a few began to take the task seriously. In a matter of ten seconds, this large room full of Hollywood royalty had been reduced to tears of joy and hope as they remembered the people who shaped their lives and cared so deeply for them.
Can we pause to stop and think for ten seconds about the people who have shaped who we are today?
[10 seconds]
Wendell Berry wrote, "Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest."
Parents, teachers, pastors, Sunday School teachers, volunteers, tutors, nurses, the list goes on and on of people, professions, and volunteer opportunities to invest all that you are into the next generation, the next wave of people.
Jesus tells us that where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also. Jesus commands us to make purses for ourselves that will never wear out. What a beautiful image. What a challenging teaching.
What would it look like if we took our money out of investments that we couldn't ethically support, and invested that money into something greater and kinder? Would our hearts be so heavy? Would our purses wear out as quickly. This is true of the United Methodist church and pension portfolios, but it is also true of each of us and our meager savings. What if we took our money and invested in the millennium?
It amazes me how easily Christians jump on board with the idea of a pension and retirement account - our society demands that each person build a nest egg on which to retire - but this entire idea is contrary to our Gospel, isn't it? Jesus who called us to give ourselves away, who called us to not store up our treasure on earth, who called us to come and take up our cross, to come and follow him, to come and die. Jesus who died in his thirties because of his sacrificial love for us. It is this Jesus who calls us to invest more wisely in the things that genuinely matter.
Some years ago, we sat around a table at a administrative council meeting to discuss the church's annual budget. The pastor was a dear friend, and I only sat in on the meeting to learn how he did things. The budget that year was over a million dollars, but the pastors felt that too much of the budget was assigned to maintenance and not enough was given to mission and vision. The pastor asked this challenging questions, "If we were to take a vote today to close the doors and walk away from this church, how would you vote? The board was a mix of nervous laughter and outright offense. Churches with million dollar budgets don't close their doors. The pastor said, "Every vote that we take today is a vote to either close the doors in twenty years, or a vote to continue to be a beacon of the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this town. The board took a hard, line by line look at the budget an chose to move money around to create new ministries.
There is much talk in our United Methodist churches about how to move forward, how to attract and keep the next generation, how to reach out well and disciple a new generation of people who can make new disciples.
As a twenty something, I feel a tremendous amount of responsibility to help my church move forward and to help my church understand my generation. As a missionary, my full time job is to think about how the Gospel is presented so that those with a cultural background different than my own may be open to hear and receive the good news. Without this careful thought and planning, it is not mission work.
And this is precisely the problem. We have failed to engage this new generational-culture missionally. We have failed to stop, think, plan, and prepare how to best present the Gospel for their ears and hearts to hear.
I read this really interesting article on NBC news about nudists in America. The official nudist organizations are losing tremendous numbers of people from their membership roles. They aren't attracting enough new young people to replace the older ones.
And this article was so interesting to me because it sounded exactly like every article I've read about the decline of the United Methodist church.
Well, do we really believe that young people in America are less interested in being nude than older adults in America? No, that's lunacy. That's crazy. But they are less interested in being on a membership role.
Young people in America aren't any less interested in faith, or Jesus than their parents and grandparents. Most of my friends who are close to my age are people of tremendous faith and spirituality. Most friends my age have left the church.
They feel there isn't a place for them. They feel that something doesn't fit them.
I have one friend whose entire family is atheist - and he probably wouldn't fit in at most churches - but I keep reminding him that I think he would really like Jesus if he got to know Him.
As we talk about the future of the United Methodist church and young people in America - we must remember our highest calling is to share our faith. I want to challenge you to do something incredibly risky and dangerous and scary today. I want you to go home and plan a time to get together with a grandchild or child or other relative. Have them over for dinner or give them a call. I want you to share with the next generation why church and faith matter to you. You can invite them to join you in worship, but you don't have to beat them over the head with your religion. Just tell them your story. Tell them about a time when your faith made all the difference in your life. Tell them why your faith matters.
Think of your friends from this church who have gone on to glory - and think about their children and grandchildren. Invite them over or write a letter, and tell them how much your friend mattered to you and how much faith mattered to your friend. If they live in the area, invite them to join you in worship.
This is scary stuff - but this is what my generation desperately needs. We need to hear from people that we trust, that we can trust in Christ. We need to hear that the church is still open to us, and that we are still welcome to come back whenever we are ready.
Those people who you thought about, those people who invested in you - that was their choice. They made a decision to invest in you. This is your choice. This is your calling. This is our church's future.
Amen.
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