Sept 4, 2022; Jeremiah 18: 1-11

Our lives are clay in the Potter’s hand. When our lives are not going according to His purposes – God will tear our lives down and rebuild them in a new way. A way that will create something beautiful for His Kingdom work. For His eternal plan of salvation.

In our reading today, the prophet Jeremiah is being sent with a message for all of Israel. This is directed to Israel the nation, Israel the family, and each individual Israelite. At each of these levels the prophet of God is offering a warning: repent of your evil ways or I will bring disaster upon you, says the Lord God, just as I have shown in the hands of the potter. God is willing to destroy and rebuild as He provided in the object lesson of the Potter. He will destroy and rebuild nations, families, and people who fail to confess their sin and repent of that sin. 

When people repent and reform their ways, God relents.

When the church repents and reforms their ways, God will relent.

When nations repent and reforms their ways, God will relent.

There is certainly a message in this for our nation. A nation built on Godly principles from the very start. Our leading documents reference God’s blessing and are structured around God’s teachings. This nation has failed to repent on a scale Billy Graham called for not too long ago. Today, people don’t even hear the call of the preacher. Our collective churches are dwindling. Pagan ideals are in our schools and homes through TV, movies, music and the like. If we fail to hear the prophets words his punishment is sure to follow. This same logic follows in our churches, our families and our hearts. 

Where are you in all of this today? Have you been sure to confess your sins and repent? Conflict and rebellion rage all round us. As Christians, we are not to be living for the things of this world. People need to see Jesus in our lives. We must hold fast to His Word and His truth. Seek God with all the questions of your life and you will find the way when the way seems uncertain. The consequences of failing to do so are serious and long lasting. Be wise in your decision making.

This past Sunday I was not with you all. My family and I went to the celebration of life for our friend, Jim Mckinley. I grew up with Jim as a mentor and more at our camp. We spent weeks there in the summer and hunting season. He influenced our lives in many positive ways, just being there and mentoring. He was one of those guys. You know what I mean.

Now, I don’t know if he had failed to obey God in some particular calling or if Jim had elected to ignore sin in his life, but somewhere in there Jim believed the Master Potter had found unconfessed, unrepentant sin. In a flash God tore Jim’s life to the ground only to rebuild it again. 

Jim once told me, I know God was trying to get my attention. I just wish there had been some other way.” 

He confessed not always being the perfect Christian. He said he wandered away from the faith and did not attend church often, but he always held a word of thanks when he saw a beautiful sunset or a beautiful view. Jim was always a believer. He spoke to me about the show ‘Touched by an Angel’ and the song about angels being all around us and Paul’s writing that we might be entertaining angels unaware. Spiritually Jim was connected, but not too heavily. He was, as my old preacher used to say, “playing footsies with the world.” Jim attributed his illness to God’s way of getting his attention. Jim would say, “he has my attention now.” 

Jim’s illness started with a phone call to his brother Larry when he woke up for work. He was having trouble talking, his words were garbled and his legs were tingling and felt like they were on fire. Larry couldn’t understand what Jim was saying over the phone, so he hung up and called an ambulance. They thought he’d had a stroke.

Right from the start Jim’s recovery was headed in the wrong direction.  The hospital then treated Jim for stroke and a couple weeks passed before a nurse said she had had a patient years ago with the same symptoms and it was Gulliam Barre Syndrome. The delay sort of sealed the deal for Jim’s case. His eyes had dried out since nobody noticed he wasn’t blinking. He was also taking the wrong drugs and the ability to stop the long terms effects of GBS had now passed. He explained what had happened to him was like having the insulation stripped off of the wires in your house; everything gets shorted out. Jim’s nervous system has shorted out. For years Jim couldn’t speak or move and was fed with a feeding tube. 

This, Jim believed, was God’s punishment for the life he had lived or failed to live. God was using the illness to provide Jim a fresh start. Our reading today bears that our as God explains to Jeremiah if you will not listen to Me and repent I will bring disaster upon you. In Jim’s mind he had earned the rebuke.

Upon his return, he and I collaborated to gather notes that had been written, his daughter’s journal of his 3-4 years in the coma like state and collected them into a book. This allowed his family to have a historical record of the event.

Sometimes we talk about people who had a before God life and an after God life. God uses these people as examples of how to turn your life around and warnings that if you don’t the consequences are real. Because Jim became ill, people in his circle of friends and family were drawn to the church and a renewed relationship with Jesus. At least 2 of us became ministers as a result of what we saw. It was our Lazarus story. John 11 tells of the dead man raised to new life. Jim was in his coma state like Lazarus in the tomb for 3-4 years but God raised him back to life.

When we would visit him in the home before he recovered there would be twitches and jerks. We thought we were over stimulating him. Turns out he was trying to signal us that he could hear us.

Jim had many stories to tell after he recovered. The story of the angel is most powerful. Jim was in the ICU, still in the coma like state. The doors to the ward slammed loudly when people came or went. Jim was in the ICU because of a mucus plug in his trach. He could breathe, so they had him lying on his side. This made it worse but Jim couldn’t speak up to ask for help.. He was suffocating. He said he was constantly praying because he didn’t have anyone else to talk to. Now, he prayed for breath. When he figured he was about to die there was an angel that appeared at his bed. The pillows propped behind his back were moved and he rolled to his back. Breathing resumed. The door to the ICU never slammed. He told me I know that angel was sent to save me. Jim lived.

Unlike Lazarus, Jim didn’t rise up fully. Nearly four years of lying in bed motionless left him with dropsie, he was legally blind and the bones in his hands had fused together. His grip was gone. The long term tracheotomy scarred his larynx and it was hard to hear him talk. Sounded like he was whispering. When he shook my hand he lifted from the shoulder and his hand hung without bending. He spent the rest of his life in a motorized wheelchair with a joy stick he learned to navigate. 

God used all these things for good. Remember our study of Romans 8:28, ‘In all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” 

Jim became an advocate in the home for both patients and nurses. Newspapers wrote articles about his work meeting with elected officials and urging them to defend the cause of both parties in the nursing home industry. He also drew people to Christ in witness and helped nurses and patients through personal situations with prayer and Godly words of encouragement. He called nurses when his roommates were dying and having complications. He served as their advocate. 

This powerful renewed life came about because the Master Potter had created Jim for a specific purpose and when Jim failed to take up that purpose God remade Jim into something useful for God’s Kingdom work. Jim served the church and he served others. Jim serves as a 21st century model of Jeremiah’s vision. God’s Holy Word remains alive and active and sharper than any two edged sword and it will not return to God void, but it will do the thing God sent it to do. Today allow that Word to direct you toward Godly living. Repent and confess your sins. Be blessed by the Lord. 

Aug 21, 2022; 2 John 9-11. Set Apart. 

Just a few reminders as we begin: First, our fight in this world is not against flesh and blood but against the powers and principlaities of evil and of this world. Eph 6:12.

Jesus said, “Anyone who loves Me will obey My teachings.”John 14: 23.

The greatest commandment is to “‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (Deut 6:5) This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’(Lev 19:18) All the law and the prophets hang upon these two commands.” (Matt 22: 37-40).

Part of loving our neighbor requires that we speak truth. The 9th commandment given to Moses commands that we not bear false witness against our neighbor. The truth requires that we confess our sins, seek forgiveness, and repent. Perhaps the greatest example of this is that of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11). This means that we are changed to a newness of life that brings us into the Kingdom of God, even as we live on planet earth. Jesus calls this being born again (Jn 3) during His roof top talk with Nicodemus. Jesus explains that no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again. Nicodemus wonders how can this be? Can I enter my mother’s womb to be born again. Jesus says we must be born of the Spirit and of water. We hear the wind in the trees and see the leaves move, but we do not know where the wind is coming from and we do not know where the wind is going to. Jesus says this is how it is with the things of the Spirit. 

The Apostle Paul would later add that this change in the person who takes God as their personal Savior is radical change. He calls it a metamorphosis. Like a caterpillar into a butterfly. This is how extreme the change in our life will be. We see the evidence of that in the fruits of the Spirit represented in their lives.Part of this would be speaking truth to our neighbor when it would be much easier to avoid the truth.

In our letter from John he writes that anyone who doesn’t continue in the teaching of Jesus Christ does not have God.John writes that anyone who does not have this teaching of Christ is not to be welcomed into our homes. If we do we are sharing in their wicked ways. 

Let’s be clear, John is not talking about denying them charity or hospitality. He means the people who might have been traveling, as the disciples did, to preach the word from village to village. Don’t let them come and teach you anything but Jesus. This troubles people because we want to see everyone saved. That is not the teaching of Jesus.

Jesus teaches one way to salvation, by confessing our sins, seeking pardon, and repenting. We are doing our best to live into the life God has created us to live when we obey the Lord as our Savior. This is tough work but it is the way to  living a Christian life. Jesus teaches that the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to eternal life, and only a few find it (Matt 7:13-14).

Scripture records an instance when what we are talking about took place in the life of a man from Jericho. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. Chief tax collector. These tax collectors were crooked. 

Zacchaeus had heard of Jesus coming to town, climbed a Sycamore tree just to see Jesus. He was a short man. Jesus saw the man in the tree and said come down. I must go to your house today. Zacchaeus responded by announcing that he would give half of what he owned to the poor and give back four times what he had cheated people of. Jesus responded, “salvation has come to this house today. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the the lost” (Luke 19). Zacchaeus was lost and Jesus found him and a radical transformation occurred. Zacchaeus was born again. He discovered the narrow path.

In recent weeks there have been many of you who asked me questions about what is happening in the United Methodist Church. In order to go forward as a church body it is necessary to address the concerns you have. Our message is highlighting the error that has been made in the UMC that is counter to the Christian principles outlined by John Wesley over 200 years ago. These actions also go against our Book of Discipline and they go against the teachings of the Bible and that of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. 

The UMC has changed its focus from the Godly to the worldly. They are more concerned about your apportionment money that to offer you a house of prayer where we might worship in Spirit and truth. Yet the issue the leadership wishes to discuss is on human sexuality. This is not the true issue. The true issue is for us to live following the Bible as the inerrant Word of God and for sin to be addressed as outlined in the Bible. 

The UMC leadership wants to have a big tent where all kinds of people gather. This tent would be filled with diversity. Diversity is good. The problem is, as I have outlined for you, that in order to worship God in spirit and truth we must confess our sin, seek forgiveness and repent. This requirement is greatest among clergy who are held to a higher standard by God (James 3).  

Coming to worship and living a Christian life requires that we all be working toward sanctification in the likeness of Jesus. We can’t be God’s people if we deny our sin. Christianity is about transformation.

Our conflict is not with people, but with the powers and principalities of this world and evil. It is a Spiritual conflict. 

We have been called homophobic Methodists, we who follow scripture. I heard a pastor in the seminary library address us this way. It’s not true. Everyone is welcome in the church. In our text today John is warning us to avoid anyone who does not have the teaching of Christ. 

To bring same sex marriage into the church is to deny the teachings of Jesus. If someone desires a same sex marriage they can do that, but not in God’s church. Jesus died to build this church. Same sex marriage is not Biblical. Jesus defines marriage when He teaches about divorce and adultery in Matt 5, Matt 19, and Mark 10. Jesus says, In the beginning, God created them man and woman. For this reason a man will leave his parents and go and cling to his wife. The two will become as one. What God has joined together let no one tear apart. 

Jesus is teaching us that in the garden God defined marriage. One man and one woman are to join together. What has been joined together by God is not to be torn apart. This is what we believe as Christians.

Not everyone believes as we do. Not everyone follows Jesus and lives by the Bible. They are free to do that. We are free to continue to live as we believe. But we cannot remain under one big tent and pretend their are not significant differences in our beliefs. We cannot continue in a UMC where the Bishops openly support same sex marriage in our church or have pastors or bishops in same sex marriages. These folks claim they are right because they are the bishops. Sadly their interest is not in the things of God but in your money. 

Jesus teaches that this conflict cannot be resolved. He teaches that we can have only one master. We love God or money. Either you will love one and hate the other or you hate one and love the other, but you cannot love them both (Matt 6:24).

In following the teachings of Almighty God we must continue exploring disaffiliation from the UMC. As we do it is urgent that we love one another, even if we are attacked for our beliefs, follow Christ in your conduct. Demonstrate love. Do not argue. Do not become violent. Adhere to the teachings of Jesus.This is what we stand for. Just as Jesus loves and has forgiven us so we must forgive and love others.

This is part of our journey as followers of Christ, denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Him daily (Lk 9:23). Jesus did not fight back. He showed no hate, but He spoke truth. He showed love. Let us seek to do likewise.

August 14, 2022. 1 Samuel 25: 18-25, 32-35. Being a Biblical Character.

I would like to go back to last week’s Bible character’s and reflect on Abraham and Isaac for a moment. Even as they both represented deity in the coming Messiah and God the Father in Abraham, they alsol represent you and I. We have all been or wanted to be deeply involved parents only to have that opportunity pulled up short because something took us away from our family. Most often its been work, but it could have been any number of things. Or you might have been the child, like Isaac, who believed you had everything figured out only to learn that your parents had different plans that changed your life in a flash. 

In all these cases we see our lives reflected in the Words of Scripture. God did not record the Bible through people for any other purpose than to tell us of the human experience with God. The Bible is a story that is about us even as it is about God.

We have heard the Scripture passage about Abigail and David and Nabal. In these stories our attention goes almost always to David. He is the hero. We love a story about our heroes. Today I would like to turn your attention to Abigail.

I was given a book entitled They walked with God by Max Lucado. In it Max Lucado starts by looking at Abigail as we just heard read this morning. She is coming out to prevent David and his men from slaughtering her family and her workers. Her husband is an arrogant man filled with self importance and the pride. We see that in the way he snubbed David. As Abigail is going out to meet David and offer confession for her husbands big mouth and seek pardon, David and his men are galloping into the same ravine she is entering from the other side.

Scripture indicates to us that Nabal is foolish in Hebrew, so the man is well named. Would any shepherd in his right mind pick a fight with a warrior of the caliber of David. He is a fool. Abigail knows he is. 

The two parties meet in the depth of this ravine. It is itself a metaphor for the two lowering themselves. David to murder and Abigail to repentence. In the ravine we also visualize there is no way out. The two are locked in. No escape to the left or right. Abigail comes quickly to the front of her entourage and falls on her knees offering David an apology and begging forgiveness. We can only imagine the terror on the faces of her servants leading the donkeys loaded with food.

David hears her plea and confession and in v35 he tells her to “go in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.” The obvious role of David as a Godly man is evident here. He can either exact vengeance or forgive. He forgives. We often pass over the story wondering what adventure David is off to next. We forget about Abigail.

I would urge you to post up on this interaction between David and Abigail. She is now positioned between two men; David and Nabal. Lucado points out that she is a foretast of Jesus Christ in this position. She is playing the role of the mediator we talk about so often, going between God and man. Abigail is between the two seeking forgiveness to save the man’s life from the power that is before her.. 

Some weeks ago I shared a book with you entitled Whispering the Word by Lapsley about hearing women’s stories in Scripture. This is exactly the kind of work Lapsley was talking about. I join you in having read 1 Samuel many times and never appreciating the full meaning of the text because I wanted the action. God’s word requires our subtle attention to the details. 

Abigail, being insightful and wise perceived the impending doom of her husband’s actions. Peace and life resulted from her quick work. She just saved a man who was at home drunken and foolish, who didn’t deserve saving. He had been disrespectful toward David asking, who is David, the son of Jesse? As if he had never heard of him. Friends, David was on his way with 400 armed men to show who the man David was. His is the exact representation of the righteous indignation owned by Almighty God in coming upon us in our folly. We act foolishly and God is on the way to make it right, but Jesus steps in and intercedes for us just as surely as Abigail did for worthless Nabal. 

In this instance we might pause and consider how we see ourselves in these Bible characters. Have you ever seen a potential conflict between two parties and done your best to keep the peace? Abigail is holding out hope for you that your work will be fruitful. Remember, Jesus said, “blessed are the peacemakers.” Abigail is blessed.

How about Nabal? We don’t like to consider ourselves as Nabal. Lazy. Big mouth. Lots of money and creature comforts. He thinks he has it made. Friends, God has the final say on who has it made. If we hold an attitude like Nabal and proclaim our good fortune as a work of our own hands instead of praising God, take note of the lesson being taught. Most or all of us can relate to Nabal given that he represents all sinners. Take the lesson with you today. Be humble. Be thankful. Praise from whom all blessings flow.

What of David? Can we do a bit of self examination in relation to David? I think we can. David was at his boiling point. Running from Saul, living in the wilderness, and caring for his neighbor when the neighbor completely disrespects him. David had had enough. Somebody was going to pay for his anger. Nabal and his household were that somebody. 

We have all been in places where we have been pushed to our limits and have like David, had enough. You want to fight? Let’s go outside! I’ll give you something to think about! Bloodshed follows. God is using His Word to caution our hasty tempers. Be patient with one another. Long suffering. Loving and kind. These are the fruits of the Spirit Paul writes about. Remember the Old Testament is telling us what is to come and then after Jesus the Bible tells us here’s how He did it. No surprises. The only surprise comes when we don’t read God’s Word carefully and with great intention. Look for the Whispered Word.

I go back to Abigail. Her heart was made of flesh with love and compassion like the Savior she only learned about in her Torah. She never knew of His glory like we do. Stepping between two men whose hearts had been turned to stone in anger and arrogance and rage, she brought that spirit of peace that turned away the wrath of David, softening his heart. He fell in love with her there and would later marry her. Nabal her husband, when he heard of how close David had been to their home and destroying him and all the people there had a heart attack and died. So great was his pride that he failed to seek God in his hour of need. Everything that made him so pompous and proud was taken from him and given to another simpy because he refused to submit himself to Almighty God with thanksgiving and confession of sin.

So many lessons to be learned in the Bible. The greatest way to learn them is to see ourselves in the Scripture. God’s Word is alive and active and it was given to us that we might know the way to go. This book is our story. Study it closely to learn the way.

Aug 7, 2022  Luke 12:32-40, “Blessedness of Possessing Nothing.”- AW Tozer

In our reading today Jesus is again talking about our need to be ready for His return. This sort of thing remains a source of concern. Even as we have heard the sermons on the subject before and studied the Bible and so on, the real meaning of being ready for His appearance may be elusive.

While Jesus talks about being ready for a journey and likens that to being ready for the departure we will experience on the day of the Lord, He adds that He will wait on the faithful at the wedding feast of the Lamb that follows. We will recline and HE will serve.

So many questions remain unanswered in the Lord’s lesson. This is quite the point, I believe. Jesus uses such colorful language so that followers would ponder deeply these things and wonder and long for a greater understanding.

A.W. Tozer, the man whose sermon I shared last week, writes a message that aids our study of this passage. Tozer writes that it is the blessedness of possessing nothing. The title might offer more confusion but it is quickly clarified. Tozer takes us back to the beginning and father Abraham.

Abraham obeyed God in leaving everything he knew in faith and going to the place God sent him. In this new place God blessed him with many things. Abraham saw these things as gifts of God and worshiped God for the wealth and people in his life. Unlike Abraham, we today often cling to the things of the world. We claim them as ours. “This is mine,” we hear the smallest child say. Our life becomes the acquisition of more stuff. Tozer highlights how foolish an endeavor this is. 

Looking to father Abraham, we see a model of how we are to respopnd to our possessions. In his abundance, Abraham saw no great glory. His focus was on the promises of God. He longed for the realization of the promise that his offspring would become like the sand on the seashore. Abraham held to that promise as he awaited the arrival of a son. Year after year went by and Abraham remained faithful, waiting on God. He knew God would do as He promised. Then the unbelievable day arrived when Sarah became pregnant. Concerns remained because of their age. She was in her nineties and he was one hundred years of age. The birth and nurturing went on as God had assured them. Isaac grew to be a fine youngman. Abraham was elated at having such a fine son of his own.

God recognized the powerful attachment Abraham had for his son, his only son, his one and only begotten son. So God required Abraham to take his son, Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice. We can only imagine the horror Abraham must have felt. He knew of the pagan tribes about him and how they made their children walk through the fire. This sacrifice to the gods, with a lower case ‘g’, was not uncommon. For Abraham the thought would have brought heavy emotion. He and Sarah had waited all their years for this son to arrive. Now God was asking the unimaginable, but Abraham knew God would use the situation for some good even if he couldn’t see it now. Abraham held to his faith.

He followed God’s request and took his son, his one and only son, his one and only begotten son, to the place God showed him. There he prepared the wood for the sacrifice and bound Isaac with ropes and placed him upon the altar. Raising the knife to strike the fatal blow (Gen 22) he was stopped by the voice of God’s angel. The angel said God has seen your faithfulness in not holding back your only son, your only son from Him. Because of your faithfulness all the nations of the world will be blessed. Your descendents will be like sand on the shore. God also provided a substitutionary sacrifice in the ram with it’s horns caught in the brush. 

Abraham had set aside all the things of the world to give God the first place in his heart. When he did, including the life of his son Isaac, God knew he held nothing in a higher station than God.

Jesus taught us this in our reading today. He said to give away all your possessions and give them to the poor. If we do that literally we will be hungry and homeless and in need. This is not God’s design. Jesus is suggesting we give away our possessions as Abraham gave away Isaac. The things God returns are yours and are to be held in position below God. Abraham had everything, money, animals, servants, land and family. Yet Tozer says he possessed nothing because he had surrendered it all to God. It was all a gift of God to Abraham so, he put his treasures in heaven and surrendered them to God. Nothing can be taken from you that God has secured for you. 

Jesus teaches us to live by denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Him. No where in any of this is the prosperity gospel validated. God alone is our treasure.

The fight to keep God in the first place in our lives rages on because the earth, the flesh, and the devil continue efforts to deceive us and lure us away from the promises of God to greater things in the world. Don not be fooled. Stay the course and leave nothing between you and your Savior. So that, when He returns He will find you holding Him in the highest place in your life. If there remains anything more important than Jesus, anything you might try to run and gather for the journey when you see Him coming on the clouds – even people- give them to God in a sacrifice of your heart. Then wait for the blessing. It’s sure to come.

Get ready for this now because we do not know the hour or the day or the time of His return. Christ assures us He will return at a time we do not expect. Ready your hearts now.

July 31, 2022. A.W. Tozer sermon with comments.

The Saint Must Walk Alone By A.W. Tozer

Most of the world’s great souls have been lonely. Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness.

In the morning of the world (or should we say, in that strange darkness that came soon after the dawn of man’s creation), that pious soul, Enoch, walked with God and was not, for God took him; and while it is not stated in so many words, a fair inference is that Enoch walked a path quite apart from his contemporaries.

Another lonely man was Noah who, of all the antediluvians, found grace in the sight of God; and every shred of evidence points to the aloneness of his life even while surrounded by his people.

Again, Abraham had Sarah and Lot, as well as many servants and herdsmen, but who can read his story and the apostolic comment upon it without sensing instantly that he was a man “whose soul was alike a star and dwelt apart”? As far as we know not one word did God ever speak to him in the company of men. Face down he communed with his God, and the innate dignity of the man forbade that he assume this posture in the presence of others. How sweet and solemn was the scene that night of the sacrifice when he saw the lamps of fire moving between the pieces of offering. There, alone with a horror of great darkness upon him, he heard the voice of God and knew that he was a man marked for divine favor.

Moses also was a man apart. While yet attached to the court of Pharaoh he took long walks alone, and during one of these walks while far removed from the crowds he saw an Egyptian and a Hebrew fighting and came to the rescue of his countryman. After the resultant break with Egypt he dwelt in almost complete seclusion in the desert. There, while he watched his sheep alone, the wonder of the burning bush appeared to him, and later on the peak of Sinai he crouched alone to gaze in fascinated awe at the Presence, partly hidden, partly disclosed, within the cloud and fire.

The prophets of pre-Christian times differed widely from each other, but one mark they bore in common was their enforced loneliness. They loved their people and gloried in the religion of the fathers, but their loyalty to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their zeal for the welfare of the nation of Israel drove them away from the crowd and into long periods of heaviness. “I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children,” cried one and unwittingly spoke for all the rest.

Most revealing of all is the sight of that One of whom Moses and all the prophets did write, treading His lonely way to the cross. His deep loneliness was unrelieved by the presence of the multitudes.

He died alone in the darkness hidden from the sight of mortal man and no one saw Him when He arose triumphant and walked out of the tomb, though many saw Him afterward and bore witness to what they saw. There are some things too sacred for any eye but God’s to look upon. The curiosity, the clamor, the well-meant but blundering effort to help can only hinder the waiting soul and make unlikely if not impossible the communication of the secret message of God to the worshiping heart.

Sometimes we react by a kind of religious reflex and repeat dutifully the proper words and phrases even though they fail to express our real feelings and lack the authenticity of personal experience. Right now is such a time. A certain conventional loyalty may lead some who hear this unfamiliar truth expressed for the first time to say brightly, “Oh, I am never lonely. Christ said, I will never leave you nor forsake you,' and Lo, I am with you always.’ How can I be lonely when Jesus is with me?”

Now I do not want to reflect on the sincerity of any Christian soul, but this stock testimony is too neat to be real. It is obviously what the speaker thinks should be true rather than what he has proved to be true by the test of experience. This cheerful denial of loneliness proves only that the speaker has never walked with God without the support and encouragement afforded him by society. The sense of companionship which he mistakenly attributes to the presence of Christ may and probably does arise from the presence of friendly people. Always remember: you cannot carry a cross in company. Though a man were surrounded by a vast crowd, his cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart. Society has turned against him; otherwise he would have no cross. No one is a friend to the man with a cross. “They all forsook Him, and fled.”

The pain of loneliness arises from the constitution of our nature. God made us for each other. The desire for human companionship is completely natural and right. The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share inner experiences, he is forced to walk alone. The unsatisfied longings of the prophets for human understanding caused them to cry out in their complaint, and even our Lord Himself suffered in the same way.

The man who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles with religious persons in the regular activities of the church, but true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find. But he should not expect things to be otherwise. After all he is a stranger and a pilgrim, and the journey he takes is not on his feet but in his heart. He walks with God in the garden of his own soul – and who but God can walk there with him? He is of another spirit from the multitudes that tread the courts of the Lord’s house. He has seen that of which they have only heard, and he walks among them somewhat as Zacharias walked after his return from the altar when the people whispered, “He has seen a vision.”

The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his Savior glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none, he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.

It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else. He learns in inner solitude what he could not have learned in the crowd – that Christ is All in All, that He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, that in Him we have and possess life’s summum bonum.

Two things remain to be said. One, that the lonely man of whom we speak is not a haughty man, nor is he the holier-than-thou, austere saint so bitterly satirized in popular literature. He is likely to feel that he is the least of all men and is sure to blame himself for his very loneliness. He wants to share his feelings with others and to open his heart to some like-minded soul who will understand him, but the spiritual climate around him does not encourage it, so he remains silent and tells his griefs to God alone.

The second thing is that the lonely saint is not the withdrawn man who hardens himself against human suffering and spends his days contemplating the heavens. Just the opposite is true. His loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the brokenhearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised. Because he is detached from the world, he is all the more able to help it. Meister Eckhart taught his followers that if they should find themselves in prayer and happen to remember that a poor widow needed food, they should break off the prayer instantly and go care for the widow. “God will not suffer you to lose anything by it,” he told them. “You can take up again in prayer where you left off and the Lord will make it up to you.” This is typical of the great mystics and masters of the interior life from Paul to the present day.

The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful “adjustment” to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are they saints.

I would add a few comments to our time together. First, a highlight that Tozer reminds us that we are sent from God to protest against the moral order of this world. This world is based upon the ruling of people. The further we get from having our society based upon Christian principles the more criminal and immoral behavior we will experience. Many children born these days have no direction of right or wrong. They are reverting to what occurred in ancient Israel where people did whatever was right in their own eyes (Judges 17: 6). God’s punishment followed. To avoid such punishment we adhere to God’s law.

Also, we are pilgrims traveling through this earth, but we are not of the earth. Our King is a heavenly King who reigns in our hearts and has shown us the way to live that we might find our Life in Him. The ways of the world are not our ways. We live according to the principles taught to us by our Savior: loving our enemies as ourselves, not collecting riches, being obedient to God and humble in all things.

Tozer names the cause of the situation of the church today: we have adjusted to the “unregenerate society” around us by living in comfort. This thing we must not do. We are to be light in the world illuminating the need for acknowledging sin, seeking forgiveness, repentence and reconciliation with God and with one another. Today the world sees no need to pursue God. The world offers comfort enough, they say. We know God alone offers a peace that is beyond our understanding. Such peace is found when we live according to His Holy law. Jesus summed the law with a command to love: love God and love people.

When God is first in our lives we will be lonely. Our heart has only one command center. Knowing this Jesus said we will either serve God or money (Matthew 6:24). The world is seeking a place in your heart tempting you over the things of the flesh, like money. God alone satisfies the inner most needs of people. His banner over us is love (Song of Solomon 2:4).

July 24, 2022. Colossians 2: 6-15. Hollow and deceptive.

Why should we avoid the hollow and deceptive philosophies which depend upon human tradition and the things of the world rather than on Christ?

   Obviously, they are hollow and deceptive which offers a very wrong view of the world. These kinds of philosophies promise great things that are not possible and quite often deviate from the truth.

One church history textbook reports of a gospel of Bartholomew that is quoted in the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy. Bartholomew’s gospel is found to be an example of the hollow and deceptive philosophies based upon human tradition. The church history text reports that the stories of this gospel are “ridiculous” (Gonzales, The Story of Christianity vol 1, 107). In one story the boy Jesus is playing with other children and breaks all their water jars and sends them into the well. The other children begin to cry in protest because their parents will punish them. So, Jesus orders the water jars to return to the children in one piece and filled with water. We love a story that allows our hero to be considered as a child. Think baby Yoda. Another story from the gospel of Bartholomew tells of Jesus wanting to climb a tree to the top. Unlike the other children who are physically struggling to go from limb to limb, Jesus orders the tree to lean over, Jesus climbs on the top branch and then orders the tree to stand tall again. These are fine examples of hollow and deceptive philosophies based upon human tradition. We want to make sense of Jesus. Let’s tell a good story.

That story was told a long time ago. They wouldn’t do anything like that today, right?

In 2008 author Anne Rice wrote a novel entitled Christ the Lord. I read the excerpt Amazon offers in their sample piece and discovered a link with Bartholomew’s gospel. Her novels also portrayed Jesus as a child performing childish mistakes and miracles to correct them. We are the same people today that we have always been. We’d like to think we are advanced, but this is only in the discoveries we have made. People are the same creatures we’ve always been. We desire hollow and deceptive philosophies based on human tradition. It is not the gospel. It is dangerous because we are causing a stumbling block for new or immature believers. Only the gospel of Scripture is to be held up as truth.

In the medieval Catholic church there developed a priesthood that supported a wealthy church leadership in bishops and Popes. They lived a life of ease. To support their lifestyle they began selling indulgences for forgiveness of sins and time off of a stay in purgatory for their deceased loved ones. Pope Leo X decreed you could even buy your deceased love one out of purgatory – for a price. The leaders of the church needed  finances to pay for the things they wanted to do. For Pope Leo X that included the work of building St. Peter’s Basilica (Gonzales, vol 1, 445. The money from believing peasants who wanted to save their loved ones from their sins and time in purgatory paid for it.

By the way, the notion of purgatory is credited to Saint Augustine of Hippo. Augustine suggested that there was a “place  of purification for those who died in sin” so they could go to heaven (Gonzales, vol 1, 288). We all die sinners. Again a hollow and deceptive philosophy based upon human tradition. Jesus will allow us to buy our loved ones out of sin. Wrong. Jesus says He is the only Way the Truth and the Life. Nobody goes to the Father except through Him. God so loved the world that He gave His one and only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have ever lasting life. John 3:16.

Jesus speaks truth. This was the truth that a man named Martin Luther knew about. When he heard of and saw people paying indulgences (1) to benefit their dead loved ones he spoke out in truth (2). Luther wasn’t seeking to develop a new church. He wanted to reform the church from these hollow and deceptive practices based on human tradition. In posting his thesis announcing his disagreement with the church leadership, Luther was putting his life in danger. In this time period the leadership offered capital punishment for going against the church.

These hollow and deceptive traditions based upon human tradition continue today. There are signs of this evil all about us. Be on guard against them and do not be taken captive by their lure. The Apostle Paul warned the Colossians this and I’m offer the warning to you. There is only one truth and that is the gospel as we know it in the Bible’s New Testament.

Paul reminds us that we were circumcised not by human hands, but buried with Jesus in baptism much like we celebrated today with Savannah and Benjamin. Going under the water we have been raised to new life as Christ was raised up. Our sins were nailed to the cross with Jesus, He took them to the grave with Him and arose, leaving our sins dead and buried. They are remembered no more. His triumph over sin and death is ours and that is not based upon hollow or deceptive philosophies made by human tradition. This is the gospel truth. Cling to it. 

Make it your own. Tell others of that truth. Then celebrate with joy and thanksgiving. Jesus has set you free.

 1 “What are Indulgences,” Accessed July 22, 2022, History extra.com.

 2. Peterson, Randy. “How Selling Indulgences Started the Protest and Reformation,” Accessed July 22,2022, Christianity Today.com/history/issues/issue 14/selling forgiveness how money sparked protestant.html.

July 17, 2022 Colossians 1: 15-28

A Poem in praise of Jesus Christ (v 15-20)

He is the image of God, the invisible one,

        The first born of all creation.

For in Him all things were created,

        In the heavens and here on the earth.

Things we can see and things we cannot,

        Thrones and lordships and rules and powers –

All were created both through Him and for Him.

And He is ahead, prior to all else

                                        And in Him all things hold together;

                        And He Himself is supreme, the head

                                        Over the church, the body.

He is the start of it all,

        First born from realms of the dead;

        So in all things He might be the chief.

For in Him all the Fullness was glad to dwell

        And through Him to reconcile all to Himself,

        Making peace through the blood of His cross,

Through Him – yes, things on the earth,

        And also the things in the heavens.

N.T. Wright is our theologian of choice today. To help us with our work of analyzing the scripture he writes of his experience in going to the mall of America and getting lost. He doesn’t know where he is in the mall and looks about until he finds a person who directs him to the map of the mall. He reports that the ‘you are here’ feature of the map is extremely helpful in guiding him back on his way. Still, he did get lost a few more times and had to return to the map again and again to find out where he was. There is something in this for us today as our lesson is about the supremacy of Christ and how Jesus is constantly redirecting us to the map to see where we are in our faith walk. Like the mall Jesus remains the same. We are often lost as we seek to find Him and yet we are in His presence the entire time.

This process of evaluating where we are in our work with Jesus becomes very important when we realize we are being invited to the wedding feast of the lamb at the conclusion of our work. This invitation challenges us because we realize we are not prepared to go to the table of Christ. How do we find our way there? Are we able to dress for the occasion? Do we know how to act? How could we be invited to celebrate with the king, anyway?

In order for us to have gained access to the Holy of Holies, it was necessary for our King to die. Without Jesus doing the work of setting us free from the chains of sin we aren’t even on the map of salvation guiding to the kings wedding feast. We are lost. When we recognize what’s been done for us we are now on the map building our faith toward that great day. We have found our way.

The remainder of our lives, once we come to know Jesus, is spent building up our faith in Him. The end game is to submit fully to His perfect will and this is accomplished gradually as we mature in our faith walk. Wright suggests this is like building something. I will review the construction of this building as Dave Miller shared with me to keep the story alive for the younger generations on this graduate Sunday and to clarify the significance of Jesus.

The church is made of bricks. We can all see that. What we do not see is the work done with a bulldozer and trucks loaned to Dave without cost from a Jewish man to build this house of worship. Today we don’t  see the hole in the ground here. We walk on the well groomed concrete. Dave told a different story. He told of a rainy spell while he was digging the foundation out for the church. It rained for days. He prayed for the rain to stop. The rain stopped. Dave moved quickly and dug. Then the lack of rain caused the building area to become dusty. So, Dave prayed for some rain to keep the dust down. God provided showers so the work went on. God provided all that was needed. Eventually, the footer was poured and the blocks were stacked and walls built up. Bricks were added.

The structure stood without windows or doors. Now it was looking more and more like a church. Our neighbor tells of being in here and playing guitar about where the altar is located because the acoustics were awesome, even without a roof or windows or doors. Dave came in and they thought ought oh. We’re in trouble. But Dave said keep playing. It sounds good.

This is how our faith walk with Jesus works. We realize our salvation has been given to us, a free gift. We want to do something in response. What can we possibly offer God for sending Jesus into our hearts? At this early point our walk with Jesus was like that muddy, messy hole Dave dug where we are seated today. It’s there but we don’t see much hope of it becoming anything.

Slowly the work continues and footers are poured and we see the outline of something, but we can’t see much. Aren’t we supposed to become something in Jesus? Where’s the building?

Then blocks appear stacked one on another and a wall appears, then two walls then four walls and so on. Sometimes we come back to find there are blocks laid that we didn’t touch. Jesus never stops working with us. Even when we walk away to something in the world, He is still building our faith with us. Maybe even in spite of us. Sometimes we trip over a pile of bricks and wonder how they got there. Jesus is getting our attention. Time to build faith. A fresh batch of mortar is laid out where we usually work. Jesus is helping us get done with a boost from His loving hands.

The analogy starts to fall apart when we go on to building the roof and closing in the doors and windows. Like Dave’s observation that the guys playing guitar in here with an open roof and now windows sounded good, keep playing, so to our faith when it begins to take shape will be good. Only on the day of Christ Jesus will our faith be completed, when we see Him face to face.

                Think how this church would look today if Dave Miller had gotten frustrated with the muddy hole in the ground and decided to go home and stop his work. We wouldn’t be having church here today. Instead, Dave took his concerns to Jesus in prayer. The faith building went on because Dave involved the Lord.

                At the end of our letter this morning, Paul writes v29 that “To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” He is working with us even to the end. We were once His enemies but Jesus reconciled us to God. We do not move from our hope in the gospel. Paul rejoices in the hardships he endured because they marked him as a servant of Christ. This is how we know things have changed. When our trials become alerts for us that we are servants of Christ in our afflictions, then the walls are going up to build our faith. We are working with Jesus, not against Him. Philippians 1:6 Paul writes “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” We are all works in progress. Faith building is a life long process that is tough work. We can complete the work because of the partner we have in Jesus.

                Our faith building will not end until the day of Christ Jesus. The work continues while there is still day. Jesus reminds us the night is coming when no one can work (John 9:4). Keep working. Graduates, and we are graduates of some degree or another. Maybe you have a degree like mine from the school of hard knocks. Dr. Stanley suggests we need to be obedient to God in our faith building. We know His word if we are to be obedient. Second, we are humble. None of this happens without Jesus. When we realize the truth of that we find nothing to boast about. We are servants. The faith building includes good works to encourage us as we are encouragers of others. There is something powerful in giving of ourselves when we recognize what Jesus has done for us. So be sure to care for the orphans, the widows, the needy and any who need or ask for your help.

                Be reminded that the building blocks of our faith are Scripture reading, tithing, prayer, worship, fasting along with good works. When we include all these things in our faith our structure of faith will become a stronger structure. The practices of our faith might seem daunting, like the image of a big hole in the ground, but Jesus is more than enough to help us overcome.

                St Francis of Assisi reportedly made this observation, too. In one of his more famous quotes St Francis says that “we start by doing what is necessary. The we do what is possible, Soon we will be doing the impossible.”  When we act in faith we are bringing glory to the one who saved us. Graduates, take note of our lesson today. There is great promise when we live in such faith.

July 10, 2022. Amos 7: 7-17. The perfect plumb line

Under the law the people were unable to satisfy God’s requirements. Amos is highlighting that their living, when measured with the perfect plumbline of God is not good enough. A wall that is built out of plumb or not square not only looks bad but it is unstable and will eventually collapse.

A plumb bob isa tool used to draw the plumb line tight and indicate a precise drop point, allowing the builder to know the exact location where the top and the bottom will be in perfect alignment. The wall will be built straight. For our purposes in examining the prophet’s words, the plumb line might be considered the law. God’s law requires that we follow the law perfectly or we will be out of line, unstable and weak enough to collapse. We fall short most every time.

Israel, in many ways, represents the church at large and the individual believer specifically. Just as Amos’s vision revealed the Lord’s perfect plumb line pointing out Israel’s flaws, we Christians can see how Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. He left heaven and instead of holding the plumbline, He became incarnate Diety, Savior of the world, to make our crooked wall straight. He will fill in our low places and cover over the high places. Jesus keeps us propped up. He will judge the world with perfect justice and righteousness. Those who come to Jesus admitting that they are flawed and in need of a Savior will find life and forgiveness.

This lends itself to answering the questions about who could be saved before the coming of the Messiah. Before Jesus fulfilled prophesy, who was saved? The Old Testament tells of good people who believed in God, made mistakes and sinned. Yet they were saved.

Amos and King David and the many other faithful believed that God offered freedom in the law even if they couldn’t live by it. How? David gives us many examples to consider. From the start of the Psalms, Psalm 1: 1-2 he writes “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, ² but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.”

Psalm 37: 31, “The law of their God is in their hearts; their feet do not slip.

Psalm 40: 8, “I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.”

These verses and others make it clear that salvation has always been available to those who trust in the Lord that His law will guide them. The law did guide them and guides us today, but the salvation of all people to be saved comes only in Jesus’ name. We need only trust in the Lord and love Him and love one another and we have fulfilled the law. This is a good sermon message in itself, but Amos offers more.

Amos tells the priest who does not want God’s Word to be spoken out loud. “Go back to Judah,” he tells Amos. “Get away from this place. This is the sanctuary of the king. Do not prophesy in this place anymore.” Part two of the reading tells us of a people who are hard hearted and whose faith and trust is in their own wisdom. They have all the answers.

Amaziah the priest had the answer. He said, “I’m going to tell the king you are conspiring against him. The land cannot bear to hear these words.”

Friends, truth is often painful and it should be, otherwise we are perfect and do not need the truth. We know that’s not true. Amos is not a professional religious leader. He is not a paid priest. Amos explains “I am a shepherd and a sycamore fig farmer. But God called me to go and speak these words” vs 9: “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.” “Since you didn’t want me to say these words,” Amos goes on, “the Lord says” vs 17, “Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country.” From vs 9 to vs 17 the message remains the same: punishment. Punishment for Israel and Jeroboam and for Amaziah because he tried to stop Amos. God has measured the people with His perfect plumb line and will not change His mind. The justice God exacts will come to pass.

Matthew Henry, an 18^th century English theologian, writes that the profession of priesthood is often corrupted and bound more with the social and political and economic interests than the Word of God. People, Henry’s commentary of this scripture continues, are not willing to hear God’s message. Amaziah charges Amos with treason because he said the king will be killed. It’s more because Amos prophesied in Bethel without the permission of the reigning priest, Amaziah. This is, Henry writes, much like Paul in Ephesus when his preaching God’s word took business away from the idol makers and shrine makers whose business God was cutting in on. They attacked Paul for speaking God’s word.

Today we are facing a similar difficulty. As we seek to follow God’s Word and live in freedom there are those who call into question the freedom God has given us in Jesus. Our freedom comes from God’s Holy Word. Perfect justice is found in that Word. The new order of right and wrong as prescribed by social, political, and church leaders does not align with God’s Word. When this occurs we are called upon to bypass the world’s ordinances so that we might follow God’s Word and live in peace with God and neighbor. Those we bypass will call us treasonous just as Amaziah called Amos. It will be we who are wrong even as we seek to follow God’s law.

Friends, I again encourage you to stop following the news and social media. Check in on the news to catch headlines like we used to for 30 minutes or an hour, not 24 hours of news.

Social media is a place to voice opinions. Facts are not found on social media. The only source of truth is before you in your pew Bible. Do not allow the earth the flesh and the devil to influence your thinking. Stay firmly rooted in God’s Word. When you do, you will discover a peace that the world cannot offer.

Hear the words of Amos, the Lord has drawn the plumbline tight and His judgement is true. Justice will be exacted. Those who follow the Lord will be lifted up on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. Those who pursue the things of the world are endlessly desiring more. Galatians 5 reminds us they cause factions, hatred, fighting, division, witchcraft, drunkenness, sexual immorality and all the rest. They will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Like the people who heard the words of Amos, we must be ready to encounter God’s perfect justice. He has drawn the plumb line tight and the His measurement is exact, perfect in everyway. Prepare yourselves for that now by knowing God’s Word and living that Word as best you can and creating a close relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior.

July 3, 2022. 2 Kings 5: 1-14, We all have a role to play.

This account is about misguided faith.

Last week we discussed the distinction between the things of the flesh and the things of the Spirit. The fleshly are sexually immoral, impure, filled with debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, and drunkenness. Those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Spiritual things are: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. There is no law against such things. Those who belong to Jesus have crucified the flesh and its passions.

Naaman entered our story focused upon his leprosy. His family and friends knew of his illness and so did his slave girl. It was likely a topic that came up in many even unspoken ways. His concern was part of his fleshly existence. Our introduction to Naaman is as a man of valor. Commander of the army. Highly regarded by his men because of his victories on the battlefield. Naaman lived out the fruit of the flesh. Killing, destroying, discord, jealousy, envy, hatred, – he even stole this little girl in a raid. Naaman was all about himself and the things of the flesh. He was about power and winning and killing the enemy. The leprosy actually seemed to have driven him to become meaner.

The little slave girl presented her Spiritual gifts to Naaman’s wife by telling her the good news of how he might be healed if he went to the prophet in Israel. In this action the child demonstrated the fruit of the Spirit. Her love, peace, joy, forbearance, goodness, kindness, and self control revealed themselves in her care for the man holding her as a slave. She desired what was best for her master. God’s Spirit lived in her.

She was referring Naaman to Elisha the prophet, one of the powerful duo of prophets who embodied the coming Messiah in every way. Elijah and Elisha raised the dead to life, made poisonous water clean, multiplied loves for a mass of people, crossed the Jordan after parting the river into walls of water.

Elisha offered Naaman a chance to be healed by the power of his own faith. Go and wash yourself in the Jordan seven times and you will be clean. Think of the Gospel miracles: sight restored, paralysis overcome, the sick made well, all because they were asked to do a simple thing in faith. The prophet, like Jesus, was showing us that God has already blessed us with the power to heal ourselves; if only we believe it.

Unlike the people Jesus approached in the Gospels, Naaman was not happy about being told to go and wash. In fact, he was furious. How dare he tell me to wash in that filthy river when there are such beautiful rivers in Damascus. He was thinking from a fleshly perspective. He was also angry that the prophet didn’t even come out of the house to greet him. This was a great man of valor; you will respect more or else. That’s the reason he arrived with horses and chariots and you can bet men with weapons. Naaman was very fleshly in his living. Besides, Naaman wanted to know why there wasn’t some kind of a magic show, a waving of hands over the leprosy to heal it. Remember our list of fleshly fruits? One of them is witchcraft.

All too often we fall victim to the trap Naaman encountered. We are confident in our ability to make a situation go our way if only we would work harder, spend more money, or use force. Really we all reach a logical point where we understand our life’s situations are too much for us. We cannot handle them on our own. No matter what may have happened to you there is a point where you realize you need God. As God’s people we surrender these things to God. He has helped us, is helping us, and will help us in the future.

After Naaman pitched his fit he was ready to leave. He was being disrespected and that was too much. Afterall, he had brought enormous wealth in the gold he brought. My Bible points out that the amount of gold he brought was around 750 pounds, plus the clothes and other gifts. Naaman thought he could buy God’s blessing. He thought he could impress God with his entourage. Finally, he figured shouting and throwing a tantrum would bring him results. None of that worked. It was the soft voice of his servant: “Father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?” (v13).

A voice of reason in very unreasonable times. It’s common sense. Just do what you have been asked to do. Afterall, he wanted the help. When he did obey God through the prophet’s words, Naaman was made well.

The heroes of our Bible text aren’t Naaman or Elisha or even the power of God. The heroes are the little slave girl and the servant at Naaman’s side. Their faith in the prophet’s Godly direction was like that of a child. It sounds like they may have been children.  It was their faith and courage to speak up to a powerful man with words of the Spirit that made them heroic. We are servants of the Lord God when we offer the gospel truth to those around us by living in the Spirit.

Naaman displayed a Godly principle in his obedience to seek out God. He didn’t like God’s requirement that he dunk in the Jordan seven times, but through obedience he discovered the power of Almighty God to heal and to save. We can do the same. Don’t just follow in the little things. Follow God in all your ways and watch as He works a powerful work in your life, too.

June 26, 2022. Galatians 5: 1, 13-25. Choose freedom.

In Christ, we have freedom from sin, law, and death. Freedom to love God and neighbor as we love ourselves. Before people were free they had to rely upon the law to provide something like salvation. Men were circumcised as a demonstration of faith that also led us to the idea of one person’s sacrifice being enough for the entire family. Father was circumcised as coverage for the family’s entrance into the body of believers. This acted as a sort of foreshadowing of the notion that one would set us all free.

In Christ, we need to be sacrificial in our behavior. We offer ourselves for others. Yet we are free to do whatever we want. We act in sacrificial ways because we want to: tithing and offering, doing good works, and being kind to those who do not return our kindness. Our passions and desires of this world have been crucified in Christ.

British theologian N.T. Wright (Paul for Everyone, Galatians and Thessalonians) compares living by the law to the experience of crossing a lake frozen over as opposed to boating. In northern Canada there are places, he reports,  where the ice freezes to a depth of ten feet. People utilize this hardship by crossing the lake in their own automobiles. The crossing is tentative and has challenges, but it works. As spring approaches the people will often sacrifice an old car, placed in the center of the lake, to let them know when the ice is too dangerous to cross. But once the spring thaw occurs, all bets are off, and loading cars on the ferry is the best way to move across the lake and visit friends on the other side.

Wright uses this as an analogy for our relationship with God in seeking to get to the other side and heaven. The Torah was written so that the people of God would not forget how God had created them and cared for them and rescued them from slavery in Egypt. We all understand the extremes God displayed in rescuing the Hebrews from bondage. He sent the 10 plaques to set the people free. Once they were free God made it so they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. God destroyed their enemies and freed Israel.

Once the Israelites were free they seemed to lose focus on the law. The Hebrews who were born in the wilderness were not circumcised. The laws were repeatedly ignored. Idol worship occurred. Rebellion against God’s chosen leader in Moses happened repeatedly. The generation rescued from Egypt, people who did not obey the law, were forbidden from crossing over into the promised land.

The Psalmist and prophets record over and over again the results of the failed obedience to God’s Word. Punishment, exile, rebuilding toward another rebellion, exile, and rebuilding. In this way, God made it clear that the law was not capable of saving people from their sins. We are broken and in need of repair. To offer the ultimate freedom, the perfect rescue, God sent His Son to save the world.

Wright suggests that the ministry of Jesus Christ was a time of change from the frozen and rigid nature of the law to the melting of such cold and unattainable ideals toward the Lord’s grace. As the freeze lifted people were taught to love one another. The forgiveness of offenses became part of God’s work in showing the world how peace could only be found in kindness, gentleness, love, and peace.  These are the markings of Christian life.

When Christ was crucified, continuing with our lake analogy, the ice was thawed and God’s love overcame the world. The people of God recognized the need to trust God, in Jesus through faith, for their needs. They lived in obedience the best they could and sought to love others and God as God loved them. The universal change was marked by the tearing of the Temple curtain, an earthquake, and saints in Jerusalem rose up from the grave and walked around, as darkness shadowed the day.

Christ now provides safe passage to the other side.  He started our ability to connect with God and has now made us ready to end our faith journey when we place our faith and trust in Him. When we are in Christ we have the privilege and the promise of being carried by the Lord to the other side.

The question we might ponder now is how do we know when we are in Christ?

Our Scripture text outlines for us the way we find our way. It is through the Spirit and not through the flesh. If we are in the Spirit we walk according to the Spirit and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. In other words, we don’t do whatever we want. Instead, we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in living upright and holy lives modeling our Savior. When we live in the Spirit we are not under the law.

The fruit of our living identifies our allegiance to either the Spirit or the flesh. We can judge ourselves for ourselves and decide where we are in our journey with Jesus. Turn with me, if you will to Galatians 5: 19 and read Paul’s guidance in telling the difference between the fruit of the Spirit and fruit of the flesh. Starting with v19 the Apostle outlines the signs of fleshly living:

Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery- (wild living) idolatry and witchcraft-(horoscopes, Ouija boards, gambling. Reliance on a force other than God to provide), hatred, discord-(we are living in discord in our denomination) jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The fruit of the Spirit is explained starting at v22; love, joy, peace, forbearance-(patient with sins against us), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Those who belong to Christ, Paul writes, have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Our lives are filled with the temptation to entertain the fleshly things of the world. These days that has come to our denomination in a big way. We are best to repent of those things we’ve done or been tempted to do. Remember that our salvation is an individual business. As believers, we do well to live in the Spirit the best we can. When we encounter others who have lost their way or who are living a pagan lifestyle, our testimony shines brightest in our living in the Spirit. We Love, are kind, self-controlled, and do not act on the things of the flesh.

This gauge of the Christian life is also a way for us to determine what changes we need to make in order to live a Christian lifestyle. We are called upon to be doers of God’s Word, not only hearers or readers of that Word. The call of our Savior is to be born again, made new into a new creation in Jesus. The ice has melted and there is a ferry ride to the other side for anyone and everyone who lives according to God’s Word and His Holy Spirit. The Spirit offers us the freedom to ride if we accept it.

June 19, 2022. Luke 8: 26-39. Father’s day.

Typically we think of casting out demons as a theme within the genre of horror movies. The bizarre events lead the main character to learn that someone is possessed by demons and action is taken to rid them of the demon, but no relief is found. A priest is brought in and he cannot defeat the demon, often named legion using an eerie voice that sells many admission tickets. This sort of imagery holds our attention and sparks our imagination. We are fascinated by the other world.

The truth is that we should not be focused on the evil of the demonic. Jesus has taught us that the devil is a liar, John 8:44, and so we know the power of the enemy is a lie. James reminds us that when we resist the devil, James 4:7, he will flee from us. We belong to Christ Jesus the Lord. And Jesus has defeated the world; including the evil one. John 16:33, Jesus reminds us that in this world you will have trouble but take heart! I have overcome the world.

Unlike Hollywood, our scripture text this morning portrays life factually. It is humdrum because there are no chase scenes, no foul language, and all the rest. Jesus tells the demons the hogs are their new home and they must obey Him. He is God. Case closed. It is difficult to make a 2-hour movie out of direct action like that of Jesus.

In our reading the people were more afraid of Jesus more than they were of the demoniac. V 35 says “the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind: and they were afraid.” Then in v37 Dr Luke adds, “then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave, because they were overcome with fear. So, He got into the boat and left.”

They asked Jesus to leave them because of their fear. Can you imagine such a thing? It wasn’t the loss of the hogs, it was the terror in seeing good overcome evil that frightened them. This raises a concern about their long term tolerance of the demoniac. They had lived with the demon possessed man, keeping him at a distance, hoping he would stay away. As long as he behaved himself it seems the people were ok with satan’s legion living next door. Chains couldn’t hold him. He broke the chains and ran about nude. The people didn’t necessarily accept this, but they grew comfortable with the idea because he was a pretty well-behaved demoniac. Still demon possessed but behaving himself. Jesus wrecked this balance they had created by freeing the man of his demons.

The control they felt in keeping the evil at bay was more to their liking than the power of Jesus drawing near in healing. The man was made well in their presence. They saw that Jesus had healed him and it scared them. If Jesus drove out the demons today what would He do tomorrow? How could they predict what He was capable of? The power of God sent them hiding, seeking refuge from the God who had drawn near to them to shown them His all consuming love and grace in healing the man. They preferred the predictability of evil over the uncertainty of God’s goodness.

Friends, our culture is no different than theirs. Our world and our churches are willing to tolerate evil and to even permit evil in our midst rather than embrace the goodness and the uncertainty of God. What is next? Will He raise the dead to life? Can you imagine what would have happened had Jesus raised the man from death to life or what if they had been among the group that discovered the empty tomb that Easter morning?

Today, fear of our economy is better than the terror of trusting Jesus to provide us our daily bread. People want everything in abundance. Give us that abundance now. We want a secure retirement, a universal healthcare system, sustained peace in the world, even if it costs us our faith in God. We can manage the material things that have become our idols but God remains beyond our control. Let’s pretend God isn’t there, maybe He will go away. In our reading Jesus did go away at their request, but note that in the following verses Jesus told the man who had been possessed to “return home and tell how much God has done for you.” God had once again left a remnant to tell the story of God’s power and mercy.

Faithful servants continue to hold the line between good and evil. We must live like the man who had been demon possessed. Tell others what Jesus has done for you. Help people to be strong in the Lord. Jesus is going to continue to do things that make us fearful. Repeatedly His words should echo in our memories, “do not be afraid, it’s Me.” Share with others how you have experienced God’s glory when God worked a mighty work in your life.

We cannot close our time without addressing the economic issues of our Scripture. The large herd of hogs represented great material wealth. They were drowned as Jesus sent the demons into the unclean animals and to their death in the lake. What about our food? Who’s going to replace all the meals represented in the live stock now drowned?

In our VBS program this past week we reminded the children time and again that God provides us our daily bread because God is great and God is good. Let us thank God for our food. By His hands we are fed. Give us Lord, our daily bread. Amen. In that simple mealtime prayer we encapsulate the scripture message of trusting God. We don’t know what He’s up to. We don’t know what will be next, but we know it will be good. The Scriptures teach us of God’s goodness. Our life experiences confirm He is good. We believe.

The people of the region of Gerasenes did not praise God for His powerful good work in healing that man possessed by a demon. They were frightened because God’s power was beyond their logical understanding, their own wisdom. And, they could not get past the economic cost of Jesus passing them by. They held to their fear rather than trusting in God. The people did not praise God for healing the man. They were counting the cost of trusting God and they found the cost too high.

Today there are election disputes, war, social conflict, economic uncertainty, supply shortages, and the ever present COVID to fear. In faith we turn away from the fear of these things and embrace God. He is our deliverer.

Friends, we are wise to trust God in all His ways especially when we do not know what He’s doing. We must trust in God’s plan and obey Him especially when the situation is counter to our comfort and tolerance of the world and it’s evil. Accept the discomfort and even pain of faith knowing that Jesus has already won the victory on our behalf. He called out from the cross, “It is finished.”

Source: Interpretation commentary on Luke by Craddock, 117-118.

June 12,2022. John 16: 12-15. Trinity Sunday.

Trinity Sunday allows us the opportunity to consider God the Father, God the Son, and God the  Holy Spirit. While this is very much a marker of the Christian faith, the idea of God in three persons, it is divided by the ways it is celebrated. In the eastern tradition it is believed that God the Father transmitted the fullness of His Deity through the Son to the Holy Spirit. In the west this is understood slightly different in that the Holy Spirit arrives through God the Father and the Son working together. This is something to be determined by the individual believer as they contemplate the scriptures, especially the gospels. Either way we know God is in three persons.

This past semester I was enrolled in a class that utilized a book entitled Ministry in the Image of God: the Trinitarian shape of Christian Service, by Stephen Seamands. As the title indicates Seamands is working on how the Trinity impacts our work as the servants of God. Much of his work is built upon the section of John we are examining today in our scripture reading. He highlights the prayer Jesus offered for His disciples in John 17: 21, “Father, just as You are in Me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” This points us to the idea that the Holy Trinity is not a closed circle. This suggests that we, as believers, are invited into the Holy Trinity. This leads us to being the body of Christ.

In 1425 a Russian Monk named Andrei Rublev created this Icon of the Holy Trinity. Seamands focuses on this image in his book to consider the positioning of the Holy Trinity in a way that includes believers. You will notice many things of the Lord God in three persons: first, He is equal in power and presence of their person. Each has a similar size and appearance. Each is holding a staff. Each has wings and a halo. Each is focused upon the Body of the Perfect Paschal Lamb in the Communion bowl between them. They are, Seamands might say of Rublev’s work, sharing in Holy Communion. Notice above all that they have left the nearest side of the table open for us to come and join them. They are not celebrating to the exclusion of anyone. Instead, we see the open invitation we talk about in our communion liturgy. We are invited to join them.

This is possible only because Jesus took on the form of a person and came to earth to offer Himself as our substitutionary sacrifice. He died the death we deserve to die. He took our place. By striking the Shepherd, God made it possible for us to go into other pastures and tell the good news of what happened. V15 of our reading today eludes to the work the Trinity will do; that God the Father will give to Jesus Christ His Son all that He has and Jesus will share with people through the Holy Spirit spreading the message of God.

The Holy Spirit inspired Dr. Luke to complete his examination of the life of Christ in both his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. We must take note of the fact, Seamands writes, that Dr Luke was not writing of something that came and went and is over, past tense. Listen to Luke’s opening to the Acts of the Apostles: “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until he was taken up to heaven…” teaching us that the ministry of Christ continues with those who believe He is God. We are His disciples carrying on His work even as we remain broken and sinful. When we serve the gospel message to others, we can visualize ourselves, perhaps, as being present in Father Rublev’s Icon. We are seated at the table with God.

This is how we create our worldview, not as people seeking to keep the gospel close too ourselves and for ourselves, but as stewards of God’s message that others might be saved. This is what Jesus began to do and teach and we are carrying on that work for everyone we meet. That means that Jesus’ leaving for heaven, did not end His work, but rather because Jesus went away and the Spirit arrived we can take the Word everywhere because the Spirit is always with us and God is also always with us. These are powerful ideas to ponder.

The Christian message of hope is our business as a result. Too often, however, we carry the weight of that work like a sign of pride, look what I did, when in reality we are to be fully connected to Christ and allow Him to do the work through us. In Matthew 11 Jesus teaches us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. We are to come to Him in service. God provides the power to do His work even as we wrongly lay claim to that work. It is a blessing from God. Thomas Oden, the powerful Methodist theologian writes that it’s not what the pastor is doing but what God is doing through the pastor. Be reminded that we are all called to minister and to love and serve in Jesus’ name. Everyone who believes is a Christian minister.

Seamands offers a gospel account to illustrate how the work of Jesus is done by the Holy Spirit but at the direction of God the Father. Good works are Godly directed and carried out by obedient people. An example can be found In John 5. Jesus encounters a paralyzed man near the pool that was said to have supernatural healing powers. When the water was stirred the first person to get into the water was healed. The paralyzed man could never get in the pool under his own power. Jesus asked the man, do you want to get well? The man replied by explaining that when he tried to get into the pool others got in before him. Jesus told him to pick up his mat and walk. It was a Sabbath and the religious leaders took offense because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath violating man’s strict adherence to law. Jesus explained that His Father is always working. The Son can do nothing on His own but only what He sees His Father doing. The work of the Trinity: God the Father was working, Jesus was watching and He directed the Holy Spirit to heal the man.

The healing occurred because the man believed and was obedient to Christ.

The ministry work we do is not ours, but it belongs to God and was given to us by God. Too often we fail to understand that the Trinitarian nature of God is perfect in form and action. God works everything perfectly. So, we are wisest when we submit ourselves to God and follow as He leads. The privilege to join Jesus in ministry is actually a joining with the Holy Trinity to do the work of God who is in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

June 5, 2022, Romans 8:14-17, Suffering on to Glory

Pentecost is often recognized as the moment of the Holy Spirit’s arrival. Acts ch 2 outlines how the violent wind blew and tongues of fire then rested on the people. The frightening wind blew fist then the Spirit’s arrival. The result of this arrival, this event, was the people hearing the wonders of God being shared with them in their own language by people who didn’t speak that language. It was God’s plan for the Spirit to reach people in ways they did not understand.

This morning we are going to home in on the idea of suffering before experiencing the glory of God. That was Paul’s word to the Romans. Suffering before glory indicates we are heirs and fellow heirs of the kingdom of God. This was not Paul’s idea but Paul’s observation that where the Spirit dwells these kinds of changes occur. This is based upon an understanding of the Hebrew Bible.

In Exodus 13 the Hebrews are enslaved and treated very poorly in Egypt. In their suffering they cry out to God and God hears their cry and brings Moses to the forefront and then offers the ten plagues when Pharoah’s heart is hardened. Suffering continues in fear as the Hebrews are departing and backed up against the Red Sea and see Pharoah closing in on them to destroy them. The Hebrews cross the Red Sea on dry land while the Egyptian army is destroyed. God’s glory is revealed.

Later in the wilderness, Moses asks God to allow him to see God’s face. God explains that people cannot look upon the face of God and live. But God honors Moses by passing him by so that Moses might see God from behind. The text reads that God put Moses in the cleft of the rock with His mighty right hand and passed him by. Moses saw God’s glory.

This notion of God passing people by is a reoccurring theme in the Bible. It happens again in 1 Kings 19:11 as Elijah the prophet is hiding from Queen Jezebel. She has threatened to kill him for slaying the prophets of Baal. While hiding Elijah was told by God to go stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord for the Lord is about to pass you by. A great wind blew and rocks were shattered. Then an earthquake shook the mountain. Then a fire scorched the side of the mountain. God was not in any of these events.

After the fire a gentle whisper came, and Elijah went out of the cave. Following this God called Elijah into service as a servant of God. So great was the call on Elijah’s life that he did not die a human death but was taken up to heaven on a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2).

We know Jesus passed the people by, don’t we? In Mark 6 the disciples are in one of their terrifying boat rides. The text describes them as pulling at the oars because the wind was against them. They were fighting a great storm. Skipping down to verse 48 that Jesus was about to pass them by but they saw Him walking on the water and were terrified. They thought He was a ghost. Jesus said don’t be afraid and He climbed into the boat and the storm immediately stopped.

Luke records in ch 18 that a blind beggar asked what was happening when he heard a commotion. Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, they told him. He cried out to Him, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus came to Him and asked what he wanted. The beggar explained that he wanted to see. Jesus said, your faith has made you well. The man received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God as he went. Suffering to God’s glory after Jesus was about to pass him by.

Today we might wonder how this Spirit is working in our world.  What might be the commotion, or earthquake or storm that is causing us suffering toward a revelation of God’s glory? Maybe a health concern is against you. Wait on the Lord, He may be passing you by. Could it be that finances or other issues are causing you concern or anguish and pain. Hold steady, it could be the Lord passing you by. Perhaps the breakup of our denomination has something for us as a church. Many of us are suffering in different ways as we ponder what it might mean for our church, our families, our generation if we disaffiliate from the UMC. I don’t have the answer for you.  Like the faithful who have gone ahead of us we must put our trust and faith and trust in God.

Pentecost fell upon the disciples in a flash, as the wind suddenly blew. Our experience could be very similar. As we anticipate His glory we endure our sufferings. God is still in the business of rescuing His people. We will not be forgotten. Put your faith and trust in Jesus as we endure our frightening rides waiting on Him to come and rescue us.

May 29, 2022; Ephesians 1: 15-23; Where are you going?

As we have welcomed our new members into the church body, we might ask what they have joined into. This is God’s Holy Church, but the world paints many different pictures of what it means to be God’s church. We have joined together to build one another up in the scriptures as we follow our Savior. Today we follow our Savior toward the hope of our rescue.

We celebrate Ascension Sunday because it reminds us of the power our God has to overcome the world and take us to a place that is nearby but yet so far away. Jesus had come into the world to do the will of the Father in redeeming His people. We needed a perfect sacrifice for sin, but there was no such offering to be found. The perfect sacrifice required sinless human blood being shed to cleanse the sins of all people. People are sinful. As Job cried out, we need a mediator to bring us to God (Job 9:33). In the fullness of God’s perfect time, He sent His only Son, filled with Glory, to offer Himself on our behalf. Jesus was the perfect paschal lamb of God. Our text reminds us He came to fulfill everything in every way.

This was necessary because people could not avoid the temptations of the enemy. We see that first incident in the Garden of Eden. The tempter came to the woman and issued the challenge; you don’t really think God will kill you for eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, do you? Eve is often given credit for the fall of humanity, but it’s a bad assessment. God had given Adam the order to not eat of the tree and Adam told Eve. There is a big difference between hearing a life lesson from God over hearing the same lesson from your spouse. I’m going to listen to God, but my spouse or any other human being? Maybe not.

Now Eve, seeing the fruit is good for food offered it to her husband. They took a bite. Sin entered the garden. As a result, both men and women were punished for their disobedience, see Genesis 3. God sent an angel with a sword of fire to drive the people out of the garden. We have desired to go home ever since. This is not our home. We desire our Lord and King walking with us in the cool of the garden.

This world is wonderful in many ways, but it is a testing ground to help us see our need for heaven. Jesus is the only way to make it right again. He tried to keep us safe in the garden of Eden, but we didn’t listen. We still don’t listen, but our Lord is patient and kind and will provide for us both here and in the world to come. How we get to that world might be a good question.

In the final installment of Kevin Watson’s book, The Blueprint for Discipleship, we will examine Ch. 9, entitled “Where Are You going?” This work will involve reviewing the tiers of Watson’s work. Namely, the General Rules; do no harm, do all the good you can, and practice the spiritual disciplines like Bible reading, prayer, fasting, tithing, and worship. That’s the first tier. The things we can do for ourselves often by ourselves. Wesley realized the Christian life is not a solo project, so he offered the second tier; “watching over one another in love.” We are to be the body worshipping, but we are to get real and spend time together in small groups hashing out the realities of life. We need one another. Be reminded that we are not worshipping Wesley. We are following his methodical plan of living in worship of the Lamb. We embrace these things now because we are not in the presence of the Lamb of God. On that day we will know the paradise of His glorious inheritance.

This can be confusing.

In John Ch. 7, Jesus offers a bit of clarity. V. 29 Jesus shares that He is from the Father that the Father sent Him. Then in v 33-34, Jesus says, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” And we join the religious leaders in the text by asking, where is He going? What does that mean?

Jesus has assured us that He is going ahead of us to prepare a place for us. The place He is going to is beyond our comprehension, so we simply call it heaven. It’s easier that way. Afterall, nobody but the Son of Man has ever been in Heaven and come to earth only to ascend back to Heaven. Our best instinct is to believe Him in faith. Heaven is going to reverse the evil of this earth and there will be no more death or pain or suffering. All of our loved ones who believe in Christ as Lord will be there.

In the world today there are many who have mistakenly believed that the Christian faith is not about a new way of life. Watson writes that there are patriotic Christians who blend their country with their Lord. In all things, Jesus is first for the Christian. Family and country follow. Watson suggests that we have too often settled for a God weakened by our allegiance to worldly things. He writes that we “worship a God who wants to lead us home” (Watson, 112).

In order to get home, we need to know the One who is calling us home. This requires turning away from a Christianity that promotes anything but Jesus, humbling ourselves, and returning to the “method behind Methodism” (113). A huge part of this is repenting of our sins and recognizing the need we have for Jesus to save us.

Listen to the invitation to be rescued by Jesus into Heaven and hear the warning. Rev 22: 12-21. The end of our Bible.

¹² “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

¹⁴ “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

¹⁶ “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you^[a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

¹⁸ I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. ¹⁹ And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.

²⁰ He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.

Second Sunday after Easter, May 1, 2022; Acts 9: 1-20

Today we will continue our look at Kevin Watson’s book, A Blueprint for Discipleship, Ch 7: focusing on Personal Piety vs Social Action. What does piety mean? Piety is seen in the way we’ve changed our lives since we came to know Jesus. Not cursing or acting in violent or unloving ways might be acts of piety. Going to church and worshiping God is another good example. When we consider the Apostle Paul’s behavior in our reading there is evidence of his desire to be pious. He wanted to show his love of God so much that he was willing to do anything to defend God. Murdering Christians was part of our reading today. Do we think God needs to be defended?

The One who put the stars in heaven and caused the earth to orbit the sun in a perfect distance and speed and axis for life to be possible here. God does not need to be defended.

Instead, in our Christian tradition we see God’s desire to be loved by offering us His only Son so that we might live. Jesus did so many wonderful acts how could we ever stop loving Him? Praise Him, sing of His glory, worship, pray, tell others of His glory. God wants a loving relationship with us.

This was not Paul’s experience originally. Paul put his confidence in the flesh, Philippians 3: 4b-9

I cannot explain it to you better than the Apostle just did. He had been acting out of a misguided love of God. His hating other people did not show a love God. To love God, we are called to love people, too, even our enemies.

Such love is on the other side of the balance, we have a call for social action by loving people. To love one another. This pair of ideas should sound familiar: Jesus outlined these two greatest commandments in Matthew 22: 37-40.

Social action means we are responding to the grace of God who first loved us. We behave in ways that reveal God’s glory in our lives so that others might see our love and then they too would believe Jesus Christ is Lord. Social action means to love people, in fellowship, peaceful living, fair treatment of others and charity. Recall also our reading from James Ch 2 last week; don’t just tell your neighbor about the love of God, but show them in meeting their needs. Food, clothing, shelter, etc.

All this requires selflessness. We no longer think of ourselves, but consider others before we think of ourselves. Loving God causes us to love other people. This is a sign of a balanced Christian life. The same grace that drove Jesus to the cross should drive us to love other people.

Paul started his life as a very out of balance God follower. His personal piety was so heavy that it broke the scales. His love of other people was limited to those who obeyed the law. Paul’s social action killed Christians for their beliefs. This is the out of balance action that Kevin Watson writes about.

Today the world would have us be out of balance in their chosen direction. Social Justice is the buzz word. They call us to join them for change by burning down buildings and killing police. Others call us to storm the government buildings in protest. Hate. Hate is not of God, but rather of our enemy the devil. The extremes require that we hate the other extreme.

These are the evils of the world’s extremes much like we have been talking about. The world is a tricky place to live, and the deceiver will do anything to see us trip up and fail.

Today, balance your life by loving God and singing His praises even in seasons when your heartache and pain might call you to look away. Don’t look away. Even in loneliness and sorrow find joy and hope in the Lord. Love God. Love people.

Love people by serving the church while we are gathered as the body. Love the person on the street who gives you no reason to love them. Allow the love of God to spill over and cause you to greet them with a kind word. We are to be pious in loving and praising God and to take social action in loving others.

First Sunday after Easter, April 24, 2022; John 20: 19-31

Our new members have allowed us to recall our own journey with Jesus as disciples and how the Lord worked in our lives to bring about the growth and development, we needed to be His disciples. This first Sunday after Easter will permit us the chance to reflect on that while celebrating the work He is doing in their lives. This powerful business involves the basics of what we call the Apostles’ Creed.

We just joined in stating our faith and belief in God the Father, our Creator, as the first part of the Holy Trinity. We confessed knowing Jesus Christ, His only Son, as being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered, was dead and buried, but on the third day He arose from grave and ascended to heaven. We believe He will come again to judge the living and the dead. We also believe the Holy Spirit is our Comforter, that there is one holy catholic church, communion of saints, forgiveness of sins, and resurrection of the body into eternal life. This is what we believe in faith. Without these things our religion, our faith is little more than a social club. Faith in God and the miracles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit provide us power and privilege beyond our understanding. We must seek God out to have them.

Thomas is having a little trouble accepting the total work of that faith in our reading from John. He didn’t have the benefit of hindsight like we do. He was not in the locked upper room when the risen Lord appeared and brought His peace to the disciples. Thomas knew Jesus died on the cross, but he did not understand the fullness of God’s promises in Jesus. Jesus demonstrated that death is swallowed up in victory. So, Jesus entered the locked room a second time to address the challenge Thomas had expressed saying, “I will not believe unless I see the nail marks in His hands or the wound in His side…”

Thomas is best known as doubting Thomas and Jesus is using his shortcoming for our benefit. Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”

We can only imagine how Thomas felt at seeing Jesus risen after doubting what the others saw but Thomas had been brave enough to question God and was rewarded with greater faith. God addressed his concerns. Thomas had not tried to hide and keep quiet about his doubt. He spoke openly revealing his true self to his friends and the Lord. He was blessed with a special conversation and the Lord met his doubt with the desires of Thomas’s heart. This only occurs when we are genuine in our relationship with Jesus. We must share everything with the Lord.

Dr Stanley writes that it was the honesty Thomas displayed that provided Jesus a chance to offer him grace. This same honesty is what creates the body of Christ, as a church family.

We offer our true selves to our friends in Christ and seek acceptance and love. This is a necessary ingredient for our friendships to develop. This includes the messy and embarrassing parts of our life. Like Thomas, when we share our faith, good or bad, we find God’s blessings.

This morning we’re going to pick up with Kevin Watson’s book, A blueprint for discipleship. There is something for all of us as we seek to share this with our new members and confirmands. We can learn along with them just as Thomas demonstrates that we never stop growing in Christ. The lesson is one of balance within our Christian lives. Our purpose is to balance our lives in a way that lifts who Jesus is and what He has done to save us.

Eph 2: 8-9 reminds us that “it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Our salvation is a gift of God offered in love and grace, not earned by works. We can’t earn it. But realizing what has been done for us we want to do something. We are creatures of action and caring.

Even our youngest members show this tendency. This week I received a picture text from one of our members with her little boy out here under the bell with his fisher price mower cutting the grass. He wanted to help. We are a people of action. By the way, his mowing bill is in the mail.

So, we shouldn’t be surprised to read confirmation of the Godly tendency in James 2: 14-17; “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and be well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

In our class work, the new members and I discussed this sort of thing. We shared how important it is to have faith in the true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and to put that faith into action. This does not mean we are earning our salvation, it means we have recognized what God has done for us and we then turn to our neighbor, in Christian love, and do as God has done for us.

To wrap up our reading of doubting Thomas it is worth noting that he did doubt the resurrection of Christ, but after the meeting in the upper room, Thomas devoted himself fully to Jesus. He traveled through Syrian, Iran, Iraq area to India where he was stoned for preaching Jesus Christ as Lord. Once his faith was solidified his works demonstrated his thanksgiving for a Savior risen up in glory. Thomas had learned to balance his faith in Jesus with his missionary works. And he shows us that doubting is part of our faith walk. Pray to the Lord for answers. Don’t give up if you should doubt. Only believe.

EASTER, APRIL 17, 2022, ACTS 10:34-43

Kay Jamison tells a childhood story that helps our reflection on self sacrifice for the greater good. She was the daughter of an Air Force pilot stationed at Andrew Air Force base. The elementary school she attended was situated near the base and so aircraft flew about the school every day. The children would often wonder aloud who’s parent was on board the aircraft.

One day, Kay recounts a jet left the runway and never gained much altitude. It didn’t veer off in the flight pattern. It stayed low and flew very near the school and less than a mile from the school dropped into the forest in a ball of fire. The students stood in awe. Mothers showed up to gather children. You can imagine the chaos.

In the following days, news reports revealed that the last radio contact with the pilot indicated he had lost all the jet’s controls. Common knowledge would be that these pilots were very well rehearsed in the ejection seat. He could have bailed out at any time, but he knew the school was before him, so he held the jet up as long as he could to avoid the school.

Like our Scripture readings, the man knew He had an out, but He chose to do what was necessary to save lives at His own peril. The young pilot was lost to this life, but our Savior overcame death and proclaimed victory to all who would follow Him. That’s us.

Dr. Luke builds on our Easter reading of the empty tomb, shared earlier. In the reading from Acts, Peter reports that he understands that God has not shown favoritism but accepts people from every nation who believe and do what is right. These same people receive forgiveness of sins through His name. This is what we believe.

As we consider what we believe we recognize there are symbols of our faith that have survived the many years since we became a people. The fish is one that has endured as has the dove, but the greatest symbol of our faith is the cross. We conclude our look at Max Lucado’s book He Chose the Nails with chapter 12, ‘I will love you forever.’  In this chapter, Max explains that the Jewish nation has the six pointed star of David, Islam has the crescent moon and Buddhism the lotus bloom as their symbols. These are all nice symbols of faith, so why did Christianity choose the cross, an instrument of execution?  

The two beams intersect offering us a simple depiction of God’s arm’s reaching out to embrace us while the upright beam is grounded in earth and reaching to heaven. The cross symbolizes the Savior’s purpose. He remains the intermediary going between heaven and earth and the perfect atonement for sin. At the intersection everything in God’s plan is completed. Psalm 103: 12 reads “As far as the east is from the west so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” This forgiveness is symbolized on the horizontal beam. It is supported by God’s all encompassing power of the vertical beam.

Exodus 12: 5-7 God explains His order to Moses regarding the command of the perfect paschal lamb. This helps with our look at the cross. The lamb is to be slaughtered and some of the blood “put it on the sides and the tops of the door frames of the houses where the lamb is eaten” (v7). And so we have a couple of things to review. The blood is to be painted on the sides and tops of door frames (act out this motion). This action is to be done outside the houses where the lamb is eaten. Don’t we eat the body and drink the blood of the perfect paschal lamb in this place? The cross is a reminder of God’s promises even as it was the place of realizing these promises.

In allowing Himself to be offered as the perfect paschal lamb, Jesus became our hope in the promises of God. While the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt, God instructed them to shed the lamb’s blood and the death angel passed them by. This is the basis of our faith. Our perfect paschal lamb was God’s Son and because He lives eternally, so we will live eternally. Death, eternal death, will pass us by.

The question of motive remains. Why would God do this for an evil people? Max advises the reader of chapter 12 with an answer to this question. He points to scripture and the gospel of John and specifically John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God loves the world. As a part of the world, God loved us enough to do this work for us.

Max poses an interesting question: doesn’t God’s love wear thin with all our sinfulness? Doesn’t He grow tired of our behavior?

He points to David the adulterer and Paul the murderer and Peter the liar. They never wore out god’s love for them. They were His beloved. Friends, this morning know that you, too are God’s beloved. He has created you, He has loved you, and He has redeemed us forever.

The end of our reading vs 42 -43, reminds us of our responsibility when we realize what has been done for us. We are to go preaching the good news and testify to the things God has done in our lives and we are to be reminded that because of our faith and trust in His Word we are forgiven.

As you celebrate with family and friends today, be reminded that God loves you. That our everlasting symbol of the cross is a symbol of His love reaching down from heaven and the loving embrace of a Savior who loves so very dearly. Embrace that love and be sure you tell people you meet of how God has changed your life.

April 3, 2022. John 12: 1-8

Golf is a game many of our church members enjoy. I am frequently asked by folks in the greeting line if I play golf. I do not. In college we were required to take several physical education courses. My roommate and I chose golf. We knew the terminology and the use of the various clubs, but our interest waned after that. Golf requires the person to get the ball into the hole in the least number of swings possible. The lower the number of attempts the better.

Max Lucado seems to know a few things about golf. In chapter 11, “I have redeemed you and I will keep you” of His book, He Chose the Nails, Max uses the game of golf to help us understand a couple big theological terms. His story is about playing in a Pro-Am tournament or the professional and amateur tournament. In the Pro-Am a professional golfer plays with amateurs in teams of four. The professional golfer’s score is recorded along with the best amateur score of the three amateurs in the group. The other two scores are dropped. In this way the professional is carrying the game while the amateurs are covered by the other best amateur score for each hole. The two golfers in each foursome who don’t do well can still win the prize behind the solid play of the other people, especially the professional golfer. Max reports winning a prize even though he played a terrible round of golf.

Max makes a comparison between this type of golf outing and our salvation. We are the not good golfers and Jesus is the Professional. His score card is perfect and is carrying us though life. Max introduces us to a new term, positional sanctification. This means that we are in a position to be saved because we know Jesus. We drop His Holy name when we confess, and we are forgiven. Not because we are good. We are positioned behind His great work. The other term is progressive sanctification. This means that we have the opportunity to grow into the likeness of Jesus as we do our best to live like Him and sin no more. We are making progress.

In our scripture text, Mary, one of the sisters of Lazarus, the one Jesus raised back to life, sees an opportunity to bless her Lord and Savior. As Jesus is reclining at the table His feet are in a place where she can easily reach them. She takes the nard, a very fragrant and expensive perfume and pours the ointment over His feet and wipes it with her hair. This seems like a very nice gesture. In reality, Mary has broken some codes of behavior.

A woman in that culture would have been frowned upon for letting her hair down in front of men she was not related to or her husband. Judas Iscariot speaks against her wasting the perfume. He is only worried about the money. Jesus makes it clear she has done a good thing. Mary didn’t waste the nard, she has prepared Jesus for His burial.

A close study of this passage reveals that this was more than an anointing for burial, she was prophesying His coming death. It’s interesting that John places this anointing of Jesus just a few verses after Caiaphas, the High Priest, declares it would be better for one man to die for the people than the whole nation should perish (John 11: 50). To put things as Jesus might have explained, His time is coming soon.

Mary had come to the place where she knew Jesus as Messiah; The One who was to come into the world. So, she had, as Max Lucado explained, accepted positional sanctification. She knew Jesus and this allowed her confidence that anointing Him was greater than all the social rules people held over her. We might even go so far as to say she recognized her place in progressive sanctification, too.

She had previously endured a funeral for her brother because Jesus was delayed in responding to the call for help. This low and sorrowful place was lifted high by the work Jesus did at her brother’s grave: restoring him to life. Jesus called, “Lazarus, come out” and the dead man walked out of the grave. Lazarus wasn’t resurrected, he was just brought back to life. Now, Mary knew Jesus was God’s chosen one and sought to be made holy in her living for Jesus. This brings us to our reading today.

As Max indicated it wasn’t her score that counted, she stood behind Jesus and realized His perfection had made her right with God and, as a result, she wanted to be like Him in her living.

Not everyone sees things this clearly.

Luke is the only gospel writer to share the dispute between Mary and Martha. In Luke 10, we read of a dinner party where Jesus is the guest of honor. There is much to be done in feeding the Lord and His disciples. Martha is focused upon the work in the kitchen. She is upset that her sister isn’t helping her with all the work. Mary is focused upon Jesus and is sitting at His feet. His presence and his words are all she desires. The dishes can wait until He leaves.

Martha is boiling over and storms to the room. She demands Jesus tell Mary to help her. The Lord replies, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10: 38-42).

This morning we must believe that Mary heard those words echoing in her heart and knew she was right in pouring the nard over the Lord’s feet. Nothing on earth should keep her from Jesus. He is the better part. The world has a way of distracting our attention. You know, the commercials today, “squirrel,” and off our focus goes.

Mary has not allowed the world, dirty dishes and all, to take her focus away from Jesus. He is before her and she will worship at His feet. This morning we read of this same Mary pouring what is a very expensive perfume on the feet of Christ and wiping it with her hair. She has let go of all social norms and expectations to anoint Him.

Once again Mary is confronted by people who think she is behaving foolishly in worshiping the Lord. This is the situation we find ourselves in when we are dedicated to Jesus. We are very much like Mary. People who do not know or love Him as we do cannot understand why we do the things we do.

During this season of Lent and Easter, I’d encourage you to engage the terms we’ve learned today to help you explain to others why Jesus means so much to you. In positional sanctification, Jesus is the One we know with a direct line to God. It’s not who you are but who you know. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). We know Him. Tell others. Explain how they too can be positioned behind the Lord and drop His name for blessings and forgiveness. Also, tell people of how God gives us chances to improve and grow in his name through progressive sanctification. We are never done growing in Christ. Tell them that that even Christians are not perfect, we are forgiven and allowed to try again.

Continue reading and rereading your Bible. Study the Words of Life. Know God’s Word so that when you have an opportunity to tell others the good news you will have a ready answer for their question as you tell them of the One you know and how He gives so many chances to those who seek Him.

March 27, 2022. Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32.

I have shared with this congregation bits and pieces of my sordid past. My home life was a dysfunctional mess and I was helping mom raise and care for my brothers and the housework and so on in my middle school years. You can bet by the time I left high school I was eager to explore the world around me. College was an opportunity to run wild and free and I did. It was like being shot out of cannon. So much chaos and debauchery. It is shameful for me to consider those days and how I disappointed my family and especially Jesus.

I knew Jesus from the earliest days. He and I were well acquainted in those childhood days when I felt unloved and lost. He was always with me. Just as the Bible promises us. That great promise stands eternally. We can trust Jesus. He will not change His mind like people sometimes do. He won’t walk out on us. We can rely on His all-sufficient grace to carry us through our days here on earth and lead us into the eternal place He has gone ahead of us to prepare. Trust Jesus. There’s no other way.

In our scripture verse today, there is a young person who ventures out into the world confident that he has all the answers. He is going to live like there is no tomorrow and enjoy the world and all it has to offer. It will be great fun.

This is the promise of the world, the flesh, and the devil: it will be so much fun. Go and enjoy yourself! The reality is that nothing could be further from the truth. Only in Christ can we experience life to its fullest. Only Jesus offers the constant companionship and life altering spiritual presence that offers us the truth. Remember, everything in life is to be enjoyed in its time and in the proper proportions. The prodigal doesn’t know portions. A prodigal only knows the self. Give me, give me, give me. It’s all about the self.

Truth is that nothing in this life is about us. It is all about Jesus and being in relationship with Him and one another. Love God, love people.

Max Lucado offers his insight to our discussion in chapter 10, of He chose the Nails. The chapter is entitled; ‘I understand your pain.’ Even without reading the chapter I would encourage you to consider what is being said to our hearts and minds this morning in the title: I UNDERSTAND YOUR PAIN.

This is the God of Creation speaking to us. He knows our pain. That is a very bold statement and we say that sort of thing to one another all the time. The Lord really knows our pain and He bore it on that torturous Friday so long ago. Lucado highlights for us that when they offered Him the wine and the gall mixed with myrrh, Jesus refused the offer(Mark 15: 22-24). The concoction was offered to those about to be executed because it was a pain reliever. This would allow the dying some freedom from feeling all the pain. Jesus turned that offer down. Max reminds us Jesus did this to be sure He experienced every ounce of pain so that we would be set free from the wages of our sins. He bore our infirmities. All of them. He didn’t allow even a drop of that pain to escape Him.

This allows the theologian, like you and me, to read and reread our Bible, Mark 15: 22-24, and wonder and marvel at this man God, Jesus Christ. How did He do that? Why would He do that? For me? I don’t deserve it. Do you?

Max draws the logical conclusion that we can trust Jesus. He is worthy or our praise and our trust. Believe in Him. Trust Him completely. He has been in our shoes bearing our pain and He understands our pain. Perfectly. A great love for us.

The Prodigal knew this about his father, didn’t he? Jesus explains to us in the parable that it occurred to him when he was starving and working with the hogs that he had a father who loved him and that he could trust to care for him. The Prodigal went home and found things much better than he had expected. A ring on his finger, a robe or recognition on his shoulders and a great celebration in his honor. It starts with trust. He trusted that his father would welcome him back. When we believe Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man we come to trust Him.

The prodigal allows us to see this idea in motion. Jesus paints the picture. The spoiled kid had it all. He wanted more. He ran off to find more and came home covered in pig manure. He trusted his father and was redeemed. In a twist, when my grandfather came to pick me up from college after graduation, he wanted to see my room. There were dirty clothes in piles and beer bottles overflowing my trash. The room stunk of hops. Without missing a beat, he asked me where the hogs were. I trusted him and he accepted me. It wasn’t until I started studying the Bible that I realized my grandfather was naming me a prodigal. There is love even for the prodigal.

We have a great Savior. He is King of kings, Lord of lords, our great High Priest. We can trust Him. He fulfilled all the promises of God in His virgin birth, life and death and resurrection. Lucado points to Scripture for the evidence.

Judas betrayed Jesus to “bring about what Scripture said.” Read John 13:18 and 17:12.

They gambled for His clothing took place “so that Scripture would come true: They divided my clothes among them and drew lots for My clothing.” (John 19:24)

The legs of Christ were not broken “to make the Scripture come true: ‘not one of His bones will be broken.’” (John 19:36)

The side of Jesus was pierced to fulfill the passage that says, “They will look at the One they stabbed.” (John 19:37)

John says the disciples were stunned at the empty tomb since “they did not yet understand from the Scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead” (John 20:9) (Lucado, He Chose the Nails, 94-95).

                These scriptures and many others were all fulfilled by Jesus. We can trust Him. When we trust Jesus we discover the origins of a relationship that developed over the course of many sins, followed by our repentence, more sin followed by more repentence. In all of this Jesus is trustworthy. He will do exactly what He has told us. Trust Him.                

March 20, 2022; Luke 13: 1-9

Jesus is teaching us another lesson today filled with real life implications. First, a reminder that God is in control. Recall Jesus’ conversation with the lame man he healed in John 5. When Jesus later encountered the man walking in the Temple, Jesus said to him, “you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Something worse may happen to any of us.

We in the western world in the scientific age have downplayed the power of God to do the impossible. We have decided that if we can’t explain an event with science then it might be a miracle or a wonder of some sort of random event. We often treat things like this as if it never happened. We shrug it off and walk away. I would suggest that we are afraid of facing the truth that God is in control. It scares us that He is greater than our wildest imaginations. We don’t like not being in control.

The ancient ones who lived in tents with their flocks saw God’s power for what it was in the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day. They were afraid yet, they still sinned. They wanted to have things their own way. Manna and water weren’t enough, they wanted meat, too. So, we are not alone in our rebellion. Just sinful.

Connecting the punishment for sin with God means He knows everything and is in control and we could be next. It is an idea called mysticism, the power of God to do the impossible. Mysticism means something just beyond our level of reality.  This mysticism scares us. Rightly so. The beginning of knowledge is the fear of God.

In our reading, Jesus tells them of the blood of the Galileans being mixed with the blood of sacrifices and the tower of Siloam collapsing. It’s a current events lesson. The Galileans who were killed in the Temple would have drawn the Roman military like that only if they were out of line. It is likely that they were using the Temple to meet or plan something rebellious. Just a guess, but Jesus is clearly pointing to the fact that they had acted sinfully. The Jewish people were not taking the violation of their Holy city or the Temple lightly. Zealots and rebellious groups are part of that history. We know they lashed out at the Romans and Pilate was known for his brutal handling of such things. God has called us to submit to our earthly leaders and worship Him in Spirit and truth.

The tower of Siloam collapsed killing 18 people. Was this a freak accident or did God use the incident to highlight the sin of those people or someone else related to the incident? Clearly, Jesus is suggesting the people killed by the tower were sinful like everyone else. The Jewish people believed that if evil fell upon you it was a result of sin. Jesus is saying their sin was no worse than ours. God allows evil to happen to reveal His plan for His glory. It’s unnerving to think about isn’t it? We are not in control.

We should be glad we are not in control. Our salvation is a God directed action that we have no control over either. We can either accept that free gift of God, or not? We have free will, remember? That is the point Jesus is making. In our freedom, it is important that we surrender to Him in repentence.

If we do not repent of our sins, then the ownership of those sins remains ours. Repent. Jesus says, “unless you repent, you will all be destroyed in the same way” (v5). Can we save ourselves by repenting? That question was lingering in the air, wasn’t it? Both then and now.

Jesus offers a parable to answer that question. “A man had a fig tree planted in a vineyard” (v6). This is not a random point of information. Fig trees offer some sort of benefit to the grapevines and vice versa. So, the people would have known what He was saying. It was a common practice to plant fig trees in the vineyard. The owner wanted figs and the tree wasn’t producing. “Cut it down” the owner said. The gardener begged the owner, “let it alone for one more year. I will dig around it and put fertilizer over the roots. If it produces fruit next year, ok, but if it doesn’t, then cut it down” (v8-9).

We are the fig tree. Jesus is the gardener. God is the owner of the vineyard. Jesus is interceding on our behalf. If we will accept the call of Jesus to repent and bear fruit for God, we will live. If we are stubborn and refuse to repent as Jesus is calling us to repent of our sins, then we will perish. Hear the cry of Jesus for your life to be spared? He is our intermediary going between us and God. Bear fruit for the Kingdom of God and repent. He loves you and doesn’t want you to be lost.

Max Lucado offers a similar account to aid in our spiritual consideration. In Chapter 9, of His book; He Chose the Nails, entitled ‘I invite you into My Presence’, Max is telling us about the invitation to join Jesus. His story is of their dog, Salty.

Salty likes to get into the trash. We’ve all had dogs like that. We once had a Great Dane who would do worse than that. I would make a sandwich and put the bread away and look back and my plate was empty. Not even a crumb. The dog was so big he could eat right off the counter.

Salty, like our dogs, doesn’t know why human food is so appealing. It just is. Afterall, their dish is filled regularly. Dog biscuits or treats are offered. The pets have what they need to eat and more, so why do the dogs get into the trash and steal food when we’re not looking?

The reason for their behavior is the same as our sinful behavior: because we can. God has given us free will and we want to be in control and I’m going to do what I’m going to do and you aren’t going to stop me. If you think this is a new idea to people, look at a one or two year old when they are told “no”. You will see the rebellion started in the Garden of Eden is alive and well in people today.

The rebellion of Max’s dog is very much in line with our rebellion. We have trouble believing that God can possibly know everything. He doesn’t know about that thought or action that was only a little sinful. I’ll just wait and see if He catches me.

Boy how we squeal when our tower of Siloam comes crashing down or the authorities storm our house. When sin is revealed as sin, and we have failed to accept the fullness of God’s grace and failed to return to God. Repentence would have helped us avoid that. Repentence in going before God and fully submitting ourselves as a part of confession. “Yes, God. It was me again. Please forgive me. Help me to not do that again, in Jesus’ name. Amen.” The we go on in life trying not to sin anymore.

Max was calling to Salty after he got into the trash. When the dog came out of hiding, he had his tail between his legs and his head hung down. Max realized the dog knew he had done wrong. He knew he was in trouble. Max says the dog thought I was still mad at him. He doesn’t know I’ve already dealt with his mistake.

 God sees us get into trash of our own. He has dealt with our mistake. We wonder, can I ever feel close to God again. I’m filthy from the trash. He said don’t do that and I did it anyway. God’s invitation into His presence is eternally given in the good Friday account. The body was broken, and the blood flowed for our sins. The temple curtain is torn it two. God is welcoming you into His presence. The veil is down, the door is open, God is inviting us in.

Don’t trust your conscience or your feelings. Trust the cross. Confess your sins. Ask for forgiveness. Repent. You are forgiven.

March 6, 2022; Romans 10: 8-13

As we parallel the Max Lucado book He chose the nails being studied by our groups I will begin with an examination of the gifts being offered in the first two chapters. Lucado does a good work in examining things in the Good Friday sequence that we read but often gloss over. During this Lenten season we will try to highlight some of these things.

We study God’s gifts most often in Advent and Christmas but today we might go in that direction. I would offer the human hand as our first evidence of God’s love and care for humanity. The hand is a complex appendage with many moving parts and intricate facets that all combine to do things that science struggles to replicate. How can we build a robot to act like that? It would be wonderful perhaps.

Look at your hand for a moment. The fingers each at an angle to serve a different function when necessary and yet collectively they work together to do powerful work. And we can open and close our hands like this without giving it a thought. Open and close. We can leave the hand at an angle this way and it works and this way and it still functions flawlessly. We can use it to wave and greet others. We use it to prepare our meals and to lift our meal to our mouth. We groom ourselves with our hands. We use our hands to hold the hand of another we love dearly. There is no limit to the amount of work we can do with our hands. Painting and cleaning and cutting trees, I was thinking of the trip Todd and John and Jason made to camp Allegheny and the work their hands did in preparing the way for so many people to enjoy the trails and the rooms.

Some years ago I had my appendix removed. The surgeon used a robotic arm to keep my scars small and his hands guided the control stick of the arm as it reached in and removed my malfunctioning appendix. We drive cars and fly planes. The list of things we do with our hands seems endless this morning. A very powerful gift among the gifts Max Lucado mentions in his book.

Jesus chose to do a different kind of work with His hands. Max reminds us that Jesus allowed His hands to carry a wooden beam to the to of Golgotha. He held still as the soldiers took a large steel nail and Jesus allowed them to pound the nail through His hand. That’s a use for the hand we don’t often think about. Christ held still for the other hand to be nailed down, too. Scripture reports Jesus was the perfect Pascal Lamb. He never cried out or begged for mercy. He took the nails through His feet too. This is the work with His hands that Jesus, the only begotten Son of God did for our salvation.

The title of the book offers something to that way doesn’t it? He chose the nails. Jesus chose the nails and crucifixion because the other methods of death would have been too quick and dismissed as easy. Being beheaded as John the Baptist had been was over in a moment and there were no witnesses. Being hung would have also been over in a few moments. God chose the cross to fulfill His perfect plan.

iSome of us have had this conversation about why evil occurs and why God doesn’t stop the bad in the world from happening. This story is a good example of that. Jesus had to be lifted up just as He said, like that fiery serpent in the desert so that all people could be drawn to Him. So Jesus was put up on the cross in the bright sunlight for six hours, naked and dying a very slow and agonizing death. Why?

Not just to die for our sins, that could have been over in a moment. Death comes easy to our fragile bodies. Jesus allowed His hands nailed to the cross so people in Jerusalem would see and know the Son of God had been with them. They recorded this in the history books. The sky turned dark. The earth quaked. The curtain was torn in two.

                Keep in minds these were the same hands who healed the blind and the lame and touched a leper made clean. The hand is an amazing instrument.

                Max makes a neat turn by comparing Jesus and His love of us like beauty and the beast. It was His beauty that came to save us in perfection and love. We represent the beast responding to perfect grace by spitting in the face of God. That doesn’t bode well for us as a people. We are lowly to say the least.

                Jesus taught the lesson well on how we are to conduct ourselves, didn’t He? Love your enemies. Isn’t that what He said?

                Jesus endured the worst the world had to offer Him and responded by offering forgiveness to all the world. Galatians 3:13 reminds us that God made Him who had no sin to be our sin so that we could receive His righteousness. In other words, we changed places. Those hands nailed down should have been ours, but Jesus chose to go in our place.

February 27, 2022. 2 Corinthians 3: 12-4:2.

We will begin by recognizing that we are studying God’s Word in truth. Paul highlights that for us this morning. It is important that we remember what we learn in the scriptures is truth. People will deceive us and play on our emotions, but God’s Word will never leave us begging for more. We will find contentment in God’s Word as we seek to shelter ourselves in His Word. 

This sort of thing is like most everything else in the world; it requires practice. Kevin Watson writes of giving up most everything else in his life when he discovered baseball. The coaches told him he wasn’t big enough or strong enough, but he knew he could be a good ball player. So, Watson practiced. And practiced and practiced. 

His family moved often so through his high school years Watson never had a chance to relax his practice because the coaches and players knew him. Instead, he had to prove he was a good player every time they moved. This meant hours batting and fielding each day just to make the team. Thankfully, Watson met Jesus and everything about baseball took its proper place as a sport and he went on to use this discipline to learn of Jesus as Lord and all that that means.

This morning Watson continues his examination of Wesley’s blueprint for discipleship and the three General rules. The last of these rules requires that we practice the Christian Disciplines. In six bullet points Wesley guides us to understand the Christian disciplines as he sees them. These remain the bases for our method of following Jesus and are to be practiced so that our faith might be perfected. 

The first is the public worship of God. Public worship builds up believers as we sing, read scripture, receive communion, pray, hear the sermon based on God’s Word, and come to understand our salvation and the need for it. When we worship God in this way it allows our hearts and minds to be filled with the knowledge of God. We become immersed in His glory and the earthly things of God. This draws us nearer to Him and we become the body of Christ working to glorify His name. It also rejuvenates our souls as we praise the name of Jesus.

Within public worship is the ministry of the Word, read or expounded. This means that we have a message from God’s Word, a specific passage, that is explained to share with the people the truth of the Gospel and its meaning. This ministry of the Word allows God to become real for us in our living. It is very important to hear the Bible explained.

We read about this happening in the book of the Acts of the Apostles 8:26. An angel told Phillip to go Gaza and as Phillip traveled he saw a chariot along the road. The Spirit of God told him go stay near the chariot. He found a man reading the book of Isaiah. Phillip asked him, “do you know what you are reading?” The Ethiopian asked, “him how can I unless someone explains it to me?” The Eunuch asked Phillip to explain the scripture to him. Philip told the man of the good news of Jesus Christ. This then led to them finding a body of water and the Eunuch asking to be baptized in Jesus’ name.

The power of God’s Word is revealed to us in this lesson and in every lesson the Bible shares with us. It is required that we learn God’s Word as His disciples. If we do not know the Word how will we serve Jesus as Phillip did?

Communion is another of the Christian disciplines and we have talked about this before. The bread and the juice are physical expressions of God’s love for us. His grace is revealed as we remember His body broken and His blood poured out on the ground. Wesley considered communion the cornerstone of our faith. In sharing the elements we join as the body of Christ. There is something mystical and powerful that happens when we share in the sacrifice of the Lord and His great love for us. Most things related to our Christian life are hard to put our fingers on, but communion is specifically designed to allow us the physical connection with Jesus and to consume that presence where, in a mystery of faith, Jesus becomes a part of us. It is an unbelievable gift of God. Communion should be part of our daily life. Not seasonally.

Are you beginning to see how these things are related, connected, and one?

Family and private prayer is the next of Wesley’s practices. This is also necessary to connect us with one another and with God. We are allowed the privilege of coming before God to speak our concerns, thanksgiving, and needs. When we bring our loved ones with us we are modeling good Christian behavior and guiding their lives to salvation. When prayers are not answered in the way we wish our urgency is to persevere. Don’t give up praying when results don’t match your expectations. God’s timing and His response is perfect. It will be done in His way. Prayer, our great privilege in speaking before the Lord our God.

The next discipline is searching the scriptures. Often we look for answers that Dr Phil offers or some other guru, but the truth of God is found in His Word. He will guide us and open our eyes when we earnestly seek Him. God is easily found in the Bible. The entire book is about the Trinity and tells us of Jesus from cover to cover. Jesus said if you seek you will find, if you ask you will receive and the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Our purpose in searching the scriptures is to become more in line with God’s character. 

Last, we are to be fasting and abstaining. This sort of thing is not to make us miserable but to benefit our healing and growth. If you want to experience the power of God, try fasting. Enter the fast in prayer and then stop eating. The body will immediately begin to scream that it is starving even if you just ate. When we are calm and confident in Jesus this will turn to an experience that is difficult to put into words. Jesus will be with you when you fast. We learn to control our bodies when we fast or abstain from worldly things. Our prayers become powerful and we realize our life is a gift from God. It is not under our control or that of medical science. God is Spirit and He will be with us when we fast. This grows our commitment to God and directs our life toward Jesus. 

In these general rules John Wesley has set the groundwork for being good Christians. We do no harm, we do all the good we can, and we practice the disciplines of our faith. These things are not designed to steal our joy in the world. Quite the opposite. Such things of God are designed to enhance our lives. When we avoid sin and temptation our relationship with God is strengthened. Practicing Christian disciplines builds us up in Jesus and permits our spiritual growth.

There are times when we encounter the world in a hostile confrontational way that demands a response from us. Living according to these rules provides our response. We come to learn the truth of God. This truth allows us to know the way to go. We didn’t find the answer in our general rules to be copied down and shared like we were taking a test. The truth resonates in our hearts and minds and we know it is truth because of closeness with Jesus. 

If the General Conference meets later this year we will be asked as a church, as members, as pastors to decide which way we will go. You and I have talked about the divisiveness of the world, constantly looking to break us into groups. Our power is as the body of Christ. Follow what we learn from these readings and experiences. God will provide the way when the time comes.

Lent will cause a break in our study but we will pick up on examining life as a Methodist and, more importantly, as a Christian after we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord. The veil has been torn in half and we see things clearly. Thanks be to God.

February 20, 2022 Luke 6: 27-38

Today’s message is part of our continued look at God’s upside down Kingdom. The world promotes the idea of loving your neighbor and your family but not those people who are from a different place, like a bad neighborhood down the road or another country around the world. Jesus is making it very clear that we are not only to love our neighbors, but we are also to love our enemies. Even when they mistreat you, Jesus says to love.

What does the world teach? The world would teach us to retaliate. Strike back. Hit them harder than they hit you. And So on. The world teaches the opposite of the things the Lord teaches. The world is not the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom does exist inside of you and me. When we live according to God’s commands we take on the appearance of Christ. We will not be millionaires because God Kingdom isn’t about wealth. God’s Kingdom isn’t about being better than others. God’s Kingdom is based on love.

The Apostle Paul reminds us that love is patient, kind, not envious or boastful, and humble (1Cor. 13). Love honors others, doesn’t keep track of wrongs, delights in truth. It always protects, trusts, always hopes and always perseveres. Love never fails. This is very different than the world we live in. People in this world do not trust, do not show patience or kindness and they always keep track of wrongs we have done.

This is a rather bleak outlook on the world. And it should be. Remember Jesus had to die to offer salvation because we cannot overcome the evil of this world without Him. It took God’s perfect power to defeat the world. When we are in Christ we are part of the Kingdom of God. Upside down because the last will be first and the first will be last. Jesus has out lined further how we act when we are part of that Kingdom. We turn the other cheek. We give without expecting to be paid back. This is love.

John Wesley would say we are doing good when we live this way. In this installment of the Blueprint for Discipleship, Kevin Watson highlights the way we serve God’s Kingdom in the Wesleyan tradition. You will notice than Wesley’s general rule for Doing no harm we studied last week was to keep us from falling backwards into sin. The second rule follows it up that we are to do all the good we can. Wesley’s idea of good we can be sure came from passages like the one we read today. As a student of Jesus we have the same opportunity to read the Lord’s message and make it our own. That continues to be our goal this morning. To make God’s Kingdom work our work. Then He will know we are His disciples.

Wesley says our good works are evidence of our salvation. Why would anyone give away their hard earned cash and not expect to be repaid? That’s ridiculous, right? But it is exactly what we do as Christians. Wesley would make the point that this is done in response to the great salvation Christ offered us first. He didn’t wait for a response. God loved the world and He saved it. When we take this salvation as our own, truly ours, we are changed. No longer do we see the world the way we used to. At some point in our journey with Jesus we come to understand that money is a tool to be used everyday and not to be locked away. We do this because our faith tells us Jesus will provide. What do we pray every week? Give us this day our daily bread. We believe God will give us the things we need tomorrow.

Sometimes we think well what about savings and retirement accounts? Aren’t we holding back from God? Friends, do you recall the stock market crash of ‘29 and the many like it since then? The world can break us in one event. It is God who keeps and cares for us. We told the children this morning, trust God always. We are wise with our money when we save, not selfish. There is a huge difference.

Wesley breaks the do all the good you can rule into two parts. The first is what we are talking about in providing for the physical needs of others. You will recall with me Matthew 25 and the teaching Jesus provided on caring for the hungry and less fortunate. You saw Me hungry and fed Me. Thirsty and you gave Me a drink. You saw Me naked and gave Me clothes. I was sick and you looked after Me. I was in prison and you came to visit Me. They asked Jesus when did we ever see you hungry, thirsty, naked, sick. Or in prison. Jesus said when you did this for the least of My brothers or sisters you did this to Me. Jesus also made it clear that when we fail to do these things we have denied Him such blessings and eternal punishment is that reward.

It is difficult to follow God or reflect His Kingdom if your basic needs are not met.

The second part of this general rule to do all the good we can is the care of the Spiritual being present in every person. We are to encourage others to live for charity as Jesus suggests in our readings today, but we are also modeling good behavior for those around us. Your children see you put money in the plate or give a dollar to someone begging. This confirms the Sunday School lesson they hear and it’s no longer a word to hear. They have seen you act that word. You have trained another soul in the right way to go.

The salvation that was afforded us came at a high price, the shed blood of the lamb of God. We are wise when we respond to His commands to love one another.

This morning I have asked that a slide be offered to show the opportunity we have before us. There are two youngsters from foreign countries who are need of being sponsored. World Vision and Compassion International are world wide organizations with the goal of caring for children in impoverished areas. The nearest World Vision outreach is in Pittsburgh.

Suman is a six year old little girl from India. Danielito is a boy from El Salvador. They are both in need of sponsorship. I began my involvement with both of these groups years ago. They have an 85% rate of funds to service. That means 85 cents of every dollar go to the child. They are then enrolled in the Compassion and World Vision centers where they receive schooling and care along with their families. The US dollar goes a long way in the third world.

In the past when we have sponsored children, we involved the children in our church. In Christ church that would mean Kforce and Gforce. These sponsored children will write to our children who will be able to draw pictures and send letters back to the other. This allows geography conversations and economic conversation and talk of how blessed we are as a people to live in this country. So many blessings come from sponsorship. This is the opportunity I would place before you as a church today.

Wesley would remind us that loving our neighbor is not a punishment but an opportunity to represent the Kingdom of God to those around us. We care for physical needs and when we do we model good behavior for others to be encouraged to join the Kingdom work that is already taking place.

Our text today offers final words for consideration. Luke 6: 38, Jesus says “give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

February 6, 2020. Luke 5: 1-11 Weathering the Storm

In the OT people went to Temple or the Tabernacle to worship God. God the Holy Spirit was in that place. The prophets heard from God often in a voice or a sign or dream, but the people did not have access to God as we do until Jesus came and changed the dynamics of all creation. Everything changed when Jesus was born of the virgin, served people, was crucified dead and buried and then rose on the third day. This work released the Holy Spirit as the risen Christ breathed on the disciples (John 20). Later the Spirit came on Pentecost and thousands were changed (Acts 2). Today God is still in the business of changing us into new creations through the power of His Spirit. This change or transformation occurs only because God’s Spirit has shown us grace through God’s love to know the truth and to be saved. This is just the beginning.

Often people will announce I’ve been saved, or I prayed the sinner’s prayer and I am a Christian now. This is the first step in a lifetime of changes that will radically change the person from sinner to a saint on the road to sanctification. Our scripture today announced how the disciples, fishermen, changed in an instant from sinful people to followers of Jesus. Did their being saved change them to saints ready for heaven? I hope you see it did not. Jesus was constantly teaching them and disappointed in their mistakes, but notice He also forgave them in His great love because they truly wanted to be like Him and do as He taught them.

In I Peter 2: 10 the Apostle is teaching us that, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” We are made new as we have been discussing these past few weeks. God’s grace has changed us. Ok, so we are born again. Born into what? What are we born again for?

We can learn from Jesus what this change involves in His interaction with the Pharisees in Matthew 23. He tells them they are fools and hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and say the cup is clean. You whitewash a tomb and it is beautiful. The inside of the cup is filthy and the inside of the tomb is filled with dead bones and decay. First clean the inside and then you will be truly clean. But Lord, how do I do that?

We continue Keith Watson and his look at these things by highlighting the importance of God’s grace in the process. You and I will not clean ourselves inside and out. It is only by God’s grace that we are cleaned and made whole. It is also not a one-shot deal. It begins by allowing God’s grace to show us the way to following Jesus. Our old lives are gone. They were sinful. The new life will have sin, but with Jesus as our model and the Holy Spirit empowering us, we are moved to a new level of power/grace.

Our living is not for money or power or things of the world. Instead, we seek to please God and He requires these two things: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength. The other is much like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Upon these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22: 40). We are saved, we are called into this new type of new living where we seek to clean the inside as well as the outside. We do good deeds, but we also change our thinking and our motivation. It is all about Jesus.

The process of becoming a follower is modeled in the record of the disciples we read about today. They were radically changed to the point of giving their lives for their master. John Wesley offers us something on this point as well. Watson points to Wesley’s teaching for our consideration.

Wesley suggests it is like going into the house of God. We walk to the doorway of God’s house and then we stand still. Prevenient grace has called us to this point and here we stand, ready to walk in. We have repented of our sin seeking to live like Jesus taught us. Many people spend a lifetime standing on the threshold of God’s house but they do not go inside. They won’t fully commit to following Jesus. This is where justifying grace helps. We are empowered to develop faith in Jesus and find forgiveness for our sins. Born again. This is followed by justifying grace.

Justifying grace allows us to develop faith that we are new creatures. We realize what is happening to us. The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Romans 8: 16). We are in the house of God. God’s sanctifying grace begins the process of transforming us into the people of God fully. We are setting up our life to prepare for eternity in God’s house. We used to live in our own shacks full of sin and selfishness. God’s grace has allowed us to see our need for change and it’s God’s grace that led us to the front door. God’s grace will guide you to continue the preparation for eternity with Jesus.

We might be concerned about life’s troubles today more than we are the things of God. The storm in our life is at full gale. The winds are blowing against us and the rain is pouring down and the waves are crashing over us. Jesus teaches in Matthew 7 that the wise person builds their house upon the rock. The wind and waves and rain pound their house but it stands because it is built upon the rock. The foolish person, Jesus says, builds their house upon the sand and when they are blasted by the storm their house is washed away. We are to be wise and build upon God’s Word in the name of Jesus. When we do the storms of life will come but the house will stand.

There is a storm coming in the form of denominational split. You and I didn’t ask for this but like most storms the reality is unavoidable. We will have to weather the storm. If our house is built upon the Rock and we hold fast to our identity in Jesus we will be standing when the storm passes. That’s why we’ve been spending time talking about these things.

We know part of this building involves Bible study. You can only know God if you spend time with Him, just like any other relationship. The Bible is God speaking to us truth and revealing God’s character. We know how to live by following this example and of course that includes following Jesus. Prayer adds to this deepening relationship as does worship with like-minded believers.

Then we grow into the likeness of Jesus as we understand more and more who He is and what He is about. It all starts with trusting Jesus to offer us the right path to follow and then Jesus, through the power of God’s Holy Spirit dwelling inside us, begins our grace filled journey to reside with the Lord in that place not made with hands.

Once our lives have been transformed then we begin moving into the house of God. Trusting Jesus, we let go of worldly concerns. We spend time alone with God in His word. Our prayers and our attitude reflect Godly love and care. We also glow in the light of love watching over one another with love. These are the signs of a Christian. We are working to move into the house of God as Wesley might have described it.

Next week we will look at the steps Wesley offers toward a further transformation into a child of God. Until we meet again, spend time in God’s Word. Pray. Pray for yourselves. Pray for the world. Pray for the people on the prayed list. Make it your habit to draw near to God. We know that God will draw near to us in response.

January 30, 2022, God’s Grace.

When I was growing up there was a great joy in summer because my grandfather would take us to camp fishing for two weeks. It was the best vacation we could imagine. We explored the woods and the stream and pond. Caught fish and salamanders and saw bears and snakes and all kinds of animals. It was like a dream. Great memories.

                I was talking with a friend this week about the importance of those memories on our lives even to this day. The benefit was that we were learning from the greatest generation about life and the important elements of life. Since there were only men at camp, we learned lessons of manhood. My friend and I both recalled the significance of those mentors we had at camp.

                These men had survived the depression, were shipped off to war and then returned home to start a family and build up the economic powerhouse that you and I live in today: The United States. Manhood was a key to them, and they would tell you about it. Here’s one lesson I recall.

                My grandfather’s brother Irv met us at camp. He had a set of general rules for everything. A general rule for plumbing or making hay, whatever. If you were talking about manhood this was his general rule as he taught it to us. First rule for manhood was to never take advantage of a man lesser than you physically. The second rule was never take advantage of a man lesser than you mentally. The third rule was to never, ever take advantage of a woman. Irv’s general rules for manhood.

                Today’s lesson on love is much like these general rules. A general rule on love. The Apostle Paul’s rules explain to us the nature of God. God is love. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love doesn’t keep track of wrongs. Without love you can do nothing. That’s the message. No love then nothing grows from our efforts. We become like a clanging cymbal or resounding gong. We are just making noise without love.

                The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians because they were having a difficult time holding the line on their Christian faith in Corinth. Paul was guiding them to a deeper understanding of a powerful principle about the nature of being a Christian. Love is a verb. It requires that the one showing love do something to demonstrate that love. Be patient, be kind.

                In Ephesians 2: 8-10 Paul makes a connection between God’s great love for people and God’s grace. This is one of those tricky elements of our faith where terms are so closely related that they are easily interchangeable. God is love so God offers us grace. READ EPH 2:8-10.

Grace might be defined as the unmerited favor of God. We didn’t earn God’s favor. We don’t deserve God’s grace and we can never repay God, but God gives to us anyway. This occurs because God loves us. God so loved the World that He gave us His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting Life (John 3: 16). That is God’s love showing us grace.

                Paul had experienced this grace, this love of God as a way of conversion to serve the long awaited Messiah. Jesus had blinded Saul on the road to Damascus. Saul knew Jewish law very well. He studied it all his life and he had persecuted even joined in killing Christians to defend Jewish law. Jesus blinded Saul to get his attention. This opening of his eyes allowed Saul, named changed to Paul, to realize Jesus was the Messiah.  Any good Jewish student knew they had to serve the Messiah. Paul gave his life to Christ. Paul still had trouble in life as a Christ follower. We might think life was easy following Jesus, but the Christian life is tough. 

                Paul came to the risen Jesus in prayer (2 Cor 12: 8-9). “Lord,” he prayed 3 times, “take away this thorn in my flesh.” Jesus responded; “my grace is sufficient for you.” The hardship of that thorn in the flesh was real. Paul suffered. Having learned his lesson Paul leaned on Jesus to carry him through this life. God’s grace was sufficient. The same is true for us. God’s grace is sufficient for us as we enter into hard times. We can not accomplish these things under our own power. It is God who will work it out for the good by His grace.

The covid debates over vaccination and quarantine and social justice are overcome when we lean on the grace of God. The coming division within the Methodist denomination is also going to be handled by God’s grace. Not by us. Not by our wisdom or our power but by God’s grace and His grace alone. God alone is all powerful. Our duty is to follow as He leads and by staying true to scripture.

                John Wesley also learned of God’s grace through experience. We spoke last week of Wesley and the Holy Club doing things to stay in connection with God and demonstrate their faith. Watson reminds us that faith in our salvation is not based on works. Therefore, there was always a degree of doubt for Wesley because he believed the work of the Holy Club made him right with God. It wasn’t until the incident with Wesley’s boat ride to America that he realized his faith was not what it could be.

                The waves were crashing over the deck and the boat was being tossed about. The mainsail was destroyed by a wave that washed over the deck. People screamed in fear, but there was a group of German Christians holding a church service on the boat. Wesley noticed they never stopped singing God’s praises. The service went on without interruption. Even the young and women were not afraid. Wesley spoke to one of the men about the incident later. “Weren’t you afraid?”

                “I thank God, no,” he replied.

                Wesley asked about the fear of the women and children. The man replied, “no, our women and children are not afraid to die either.”

                This caused Wesley to consider his own faith. He realized that he didn’t hold as strong a faith as he had imagined. He taught himself German and spoke to one of the German leaders, August Spangenberg. Spangenberg asked Wesley, “Does your spirit bear witness that you are a child of God?’ Wesley was surprised and didn’t answer. “Do you know Jesus Christ?” Spangenberg asked. Wesley said, “I know He is the Savior of the world. I hope He has died to save me.” Spangenberg responded, “but do you know yourself?”  Wesley admits in his journal he did not know for sure.

                Wesley was trying to earn God’s favor and do good works to earn salvation. We receive salvation only by faith in God. Only through God’s grace is salvation shared with us. Wesley would learn this lesson later as he grew and matured as a Christian.

                The questions the elder German asked Wesley echo in my mind.

Does your spirit bear witness that you are a child of God?

Do you know Jesus Christ?

                Are you able to answer ‘yes’ to these questions? Sometimes we struggle with that inner debate. Do we know Jesus Christ? When we know Jesus as Lord and Savior we have full access to His grace. Like both the Apostle Paul and John Wesley we become Christians and then grow into that as a way of life. No longer are we our own. We learn to rely on God’s grace to empower us and to lead us through this life.

                Today we have opportunities to exercise our faith in God and experience His grace. Covid and the social and political unrest challenge us to shrink back in fear or to move forward with the confidence of the German Christians Wesley wrote of who praised God through a terrifying storm at sea. The split in our denomination also requires that we embrace God’s grace as head into uncertain times. We don’t know what might happen. Our opportunity is to try on God’s grace. It is sufficient for our needs. God’s grace has brought us this far. God’s grace will carry us home.

January 23, 2022, We must know Jesus.

                There was a man lying on his couch reading a book. It was a good book that he enjoyed very much. He was involved in the story so much that he ignored the slight smell of smoke. He kept reading. Then he noticed a slight flicker of light in the room. His eyes began to water, but still the book held his attention. When a loud crash sounded from the hallway he jumped to his feet to realize the room was smoke filled and the heat of the flames was now driving him from the house. The man ran to the front door and escaped before the house was destroyed by fire. This is a fictional account of something that is happening to the church today just as it happened to the church so long ago.

As we have been discussing this epiphany, Christmas and Advent season that God did not wish to hide Jesus just as He doesn’t wish to hide Jesus now. Jesus came as the Christ to fulfill all things. He was foretold by the angel to Mary. He was written about for hundreds and thousands of years before that in the prophetic books and the law and then came the night when He arrived in the manger in Bethlehem just as it was written of Him. The angels directed shepherds to find Him in the manger. Magi adored Him. Herod wanted to kill Him. John the Baptist told us He had arrived. Last week we saw how Jesus started His earthly work after being baptized. The water was turned to wine. In today’s scripture Jesus is making it very plain: He came to fulfill the scriptures. He reads the powerful words of the prophet Isaiah and explains these words have been fulfilled in your hearing. This signaled an end to the build up to the Messiah. Today, God is preparing creation for the closing of the age when God will make everything new and Jesus will come for His people. Our job as the church is to prepare ourselves and others by singing God’s praises as we wait.

                The waiting is just as Jesus had explained in the parable of the ten virgins. The group was divided. Five were wise and came with oil and lamps filled with oil ready for a long wait. Five were foolish and came without oil and lamps that were not filled with oil. The bridegroom was a long time in coming so the ten fell asleep. When the shout announcing His arrival came the five who were ready lit their lamps and were prepared to meet Jesus. The other five had to leave the banquet hall to buy oil because their lamps were going out. While they were gone the Lord returned and the doors of the banquet hall were closed and the five foolish virgins were locked out. Jesus reminds us to be ready for we do not know the day or the time.

                We are waiting for Jesus to return. So many prophetic signs have been realized and still we wait. Just as it was with the first earthly visit in a way and a time when people were not prepared or looking for Jesus. We need to be ready. Keep in mind Jesus did not go to the religious leaders of the first century but to the poor, the children, the lonely and the blind and lame. These people were innocent or crying out in their suffering. Jesus heard their cries and sought them out. Daily, bring your fears and concerns to Jesus because He cares for you. Create that relationship with the Lord and find life. Do that now.

                The church today is failing to respond to changes that have been occurring for the last forty years or so. We haven’t been startled by the smell of smoke. It has taken quite a bit more to get our attention and responses has been varied.

                Some of today’s churches are doing the same thing wearing different clothes, building different looking church buildings but still the decline in membership continues. The decline in membership has been a forty year trend. Kevin Watson (KevinWatson.com), a modern day Methodist theologian, writes that people outside the church claim that they are believers in Christ but do not attend church. Watson writes that we can respond by doing nothing and hoping we don’t lose more members or we can change.

                Change will require us to let go of our will and our power and our attempts at making God’s Kingdom and depend solely on God’s grace. This will also require our witness to Jesus to go beyond the church doors. Our daily living must be for others; the poor, the downtrodden, the imprisoned, the addicted, anyone who is in need. There is to be no judgement or condemnation.

                Watson reminds us that repentence is key to our recovery as the body of Christ. We have sinned and sin now. That’s step one: confessing our sins and repenting, asking God to show us the way and to bless us with understanding is step two, according to Watson. Remember, people do not come looking for a church when things in their life are going well. They come seeking Christ when things in their life are desperate and they are out of answers. Jesus, they recall, is the answer. We become their refuge by offering Jesus in Word and deed.

                Too many times, we look for larger audiences to fill seats and that results in the culture influencing the church rather than the church influencing the culture. This is our new challenge with the culture becoming so diverse. We must stand our ground and allow God’s power and His grace to reach people and bring them back to the church. In the gospel of John 8: 31 Jesus explains that if we hold to His teachings then we are His disciples.

                The world around us is desperate for Jesus. They are looking for something and they do not know what that thing is, but we do. We are the people to show them Jesus. We are called to live His teachings and be His hands and feet in doing God’s kingdom work. Above all else, we are to watch over one another in love.

                A fine example of this is one of your former pastors using his off hours to cut down, cut up and haul away trees from many of your yards. I have heard of this from within this church and outside of your congregation. This is an example of living out the directive of Christ to love one another as Jesus has loved us. It is a tangible proof that Jesus lives in us. But the power of that example remains. As ministers of God’s Holy Church we are all to conduct our lives in a similar way doing all the good we can, for all the people we can, in all the places we can. Doing no harm. Attending to the ordinances of God, practicing the spiritual principles.

                As you may have guessed I’m reading a book on Methodist discipleship. The early reading included the things we are talking about. As Methodists we have a great method for worshiping God and for serving one another. In fact, Wesley and his “Holy Club” were devoted to living together in community based on the commandments of God, holding one another accountable for reading scripture daily, and serving the poor, imprisoned and down trodden living around them. This same method is ours.

                Some people might believe we as a Christian church are finished. I’ve heard this kind of talk from many folks within the church and the seminary. The era of the Christian church has ended. They have smelled the smoke and seen the flames, but I don’t believe that for a moment. I hope you don’t believe it either. Only Jesus can declare things finished. Like Jesus we are not looking for large numbers of disciples but rather those who will be devoted to doing God’s Kingdom work as Jesus taught. Faithful followers to influence the world we live in. Jesus asks the related question when He returns will He find any faith?

                The people of Israel had waited for the Messiah. When He arrived the Jewish leaders denied Jesus was God. Gentiles took up the ranks of faithful and worshiped Him. Many people followed Him and believed Jesus was the Son of God. Palm Sunday we celebrate His ride into Jerusalem and the crowd was shouting His praises. By the end of that week those same people were shouting for Him to be crucified and the disciples thought the church was a mistake. Something went wrong. But Sunday morning demonstrated Jesus had walked away from death and the power of faith in Jesus changed; this time stronger than before.

                We are living in a time when people wonder about the church as an institution. The question is raised, Is the church dead? If we look at the empty seats here and other churches near and far we might think so. Friends, take heart. Jesus is not dead, He is alive. Just as surely as He walked out of that tomb so long ago, He will redeem His people at the exact time and in the way God has planned all along.

                Be on the alert because you do not know the hour nor the day of His return. Pray for churches and leaders to return to the teachings of Christ. Then follow God’s Word becoming doers of His teachings and allow the grace of God to lead us along right paths for His name sake. Confess and repent of sins and plead with God to forgive us.

January 16, 2022, God is always doing good.

The first miracle of Jesus is important because it marks a change in the life of Jesus. The baptism of Jesus we celebrated last week was the outward sign that something inward was occurring in this man, Jesus. No longer was He just another carpenter or even a Rabbi, suddenly Jesus was transformed by His baptism into something new. This is one of the reasons we celebrate baptism. As with Jesus, we believe the Holy Spirit is at work within anyone as we observe the outward sign of the water going over them. In this work Jesus was different than us in that He was publicly united with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity began the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ.

The wedding is a good place for Jesus to begin His ministry because marriage is also the place where the story of humanity on earth ends as people join with God forever (Revelation 21). It also takes us back to the garden where God and man lived in peace and harmony. It is God’s desire that we join with Him in eternal love and peace.

            Here, at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, there is a problem with the wine. The wedding would have been the responsibility of the family of the happy couple. Now they are well into the wedding feast and they are out of wine. This would have been a poor reflection on the family. The public celebration is to celebrate the union of these two persons so that others know they are married. Perhaps the tradition started in response to the narratives of Abraham and Jacob who both denied being married to their wives to save their skin. God was not pleased with this charade and neither were the wives. It’s just a theory but it would explain the emphasis on making the new couple public knowledge to the community.

            Mary brings her observation to Jesus. He wants to know why it’s His business. The phrase “my time has not yet come” is not likely designated to the start of His ministry. Rather, He is likely pointing to the cross and the time of His sacrifice. Nevertheless, Jesus told the servants to fill the jars with water. We know He did turn the water into wine. The man in charge of the wedding said most people offer the cheap wine after the people have been drinking but you have saved the best for last. It is new wine fit for a new wine skin. Jesus is preparing to do something new. A few people knew how close this wedding was from disaster: the servants, the disciples, Mary, the head waiter, but clearly Jesus was not concerned. To change water to wine was no big deal. The significance of Jesus changing the water to wine is important to our conversation today.

            From this unfortunate situation, God raised up a new wine from the water in large quantities. He was fulfilling prophecy about Jesus and His ministry and what that would look like. Isaiah 35 talks of the “glory of the Lord” and “rejoice greatly and shout for joy.” Joel 3:18 and Amos 9:13 point to the mountains “dripping with new wine.” Here the Godly principle we shared with the young people is highlighted. God is doing something good for God’s people.

                Our memory verse: Romans 8:28 ²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[a] have been called according to his purpose.

            In both an earthly way and in a Divine way Jesus had turned this wedding feast into something miraculous. The final word on the miracle we read was that the disciples believed in Him. At this we can conclude that Jesus was entering His earthly ministry so that the people who followed Him would know that this was not a Rabbi they were following. Perhaps they thought He was a prophet, but within a few years they would realize Jesus was far more than a prophet. In fact all of the work Jesus did was good by overcoming sin and evil. Jesus makes doing good appear very easy.

            The Godly principle of using all things for the good for those who love God and are dedicated to His purposes is shared throughout the Bible. We are wise when we seek to examine this closely and meditate upon it in our own lives. An OT example helps bring to focus a situation that might be more like our human experience: It is not easy doing God’s work.

            The prophet Jonah provides an example of God working good in all things. Certainly, we know of the whale swallowing Jonah and God working good because Jonah repented and served God fully. This is a powerful lesson. Often, we overlook the second half of the book, ch 3-4.

            After offering a prophetic warning to Nineveh, Jonah goes to the outskirts of the city to watch and see what will happen. It was a hot day and Jonah built a shelter to escape the sun. God offered him a large green plant that grew quickly and shaded Jonah. The plant shaded Jonah and he napped there. Overnight, however, a worm came and chewed the plant off at the ground. Jonah was very upset when the sun rose and he baked in the sun again.

            God asked Jonah “is it right for you to be upset about the plant?”

            Jonah answered, “it is. I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

            Several times Jonah tells God he wishes he were dead. The man is very headstrong and will not obey the Word of God. Jonah wants it his way. Unlike the wine running out at the wedding at Cana in Galilee and Jesus saving the festivities, God has asked the prophet to love his neighbors, his enemies even. Jonah was not ok with this Godly request at any point in the narrative. The Ninevites were wicked people. Brutal and violent. Their land was filled with witchcraft and prostitution. Jonah despised them. As a man of God Jonah believed they did not deserve to live or to be forgiven. Jonah would have enjoyed seeing the city swept away by God’s wrath, but that was not the case.

            Instead, God was merciful and explains to Jonah that there are more than 120,000 people in Nineveh. Should we not be concerned with the people repenting and turning from their evil? You were worried about that plant shading you and became angry over losing it. Should we not be concerned about losing all these people’s lives?

            The answer to God’s rhetorical question is that not only should we be concerned about the eternal welfare of our neighbors including our enemies but that we must be concerned. It is not optional. God has issued the mandate to be loving and kind and compassionate. This was long before Jesus arrived. God has always required we love others.

            Sometimes we can be like Jonah and want the wine to never run out and the cool of the shade to comfort us and our enemies to be destroyed. And when we don’t get our way we become so angry that we want to die. Even then God is still working things for the good. Notice God mentions the animals as part of His concern, too. God loves all of creation. Jesus came to save all of creation.

            Even on those occasions when we don’t agree with other people God is still calling us to be His light in this world that is so filled with darkness. As we near the time of division within our denomination it is important that we cling to God’s promises that God is working all things for the good of those who love Him and are called to His purposes. We may not understand God’s plan in this division or our lives or the world at large, but we can be certain God is working it for the good according to the perfect plan He has for creation.

            This week, take time to reread and meditate on this Biblical principle and memorize Romans 8:28, so that when adversity strikes, we can remind ourselves that God is working it all for the good. We must trust and obey God believing His perfect plan is revealing itself even now. Trust God. You won’t be disappointed.

January 9, 2022, Baptism of The Lord

We are looking at Jesus again this Sunday through the lens of epiphany. Last week we talked about the Magi coming to find Jesus under the physical sign God had provided in the star that was unusual and led them to Jesus. Now, in a sort of second epiphany, Jesus is being revealed as a man .

The world has changed since Jesus was born . All the fanfare of the manger and the shepherds and a choir of angels and Magi bringing gifts to the King of the Jews seems to have been forgotten. Even His pronouncement from the Temple at the age of 12 to His parents that He must be in His Father’s house are gone. Jesus and John had been born to women who are related and some indications are that Jesus and John were cousins. Like often happens in life the family members grow apart and lose track of one another. This seem s to be the case with Jesus and John . Luke does not describe the baptismal experience of Jesus as the other gospel writers. If we look to John ‘ s gospel account we under stand John the baptist did not recognize Jesus . He didn’t know the man at all. John 1: 31 tells of John’s confession: “I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that He might be revealed to Isr ael.” The John offers his testimony in verses 32-34.

It was not important for John to know Jesus except for the purposes of God. He did just as the Spirit had directed him. He waited until the Spirit descended upon Jesus and this was the sign of God’ s chosen One. In John’s gospel we read of John the Baptist pointing out Jesus out to the people, “Look the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

The revelation of Jesus as the lamb of God, as the Messiah occurred only because John was active. He had begun his work like most prophets wearing the prophet’s odd clothing and living in an odd way. When he was baptizing people John was waiting for the one who would come forward and that the Spirit would descend upon and stay upon. Jesus was the One this happened to. By doing the work God had sent him to do, John could identify the Lord.

God wants us to work, too. Sometimes our work is necessary for His kingdom to be advanced. I use to tell the youth group this way, when you are learning to drive a car you can get behind the wheel and buckle up, but you will notice that nothing happens until you take action to put things in gear. First, we start the car then we put the car in gear and then we can learn to drive it. Sitting in the driveway with the car in park is not teaching us anything. We must take an active role and then the learning begins.

Recently I have read and heard from people who have voiced a concern that they are not being fed. This seems to be related to their spiritual lives and may be connected to the pandemic and these odd times we are living through. Whatever the case, we must take action to engage God’ s kingdom work as a church family. This requires we work at it.

Covid has caused a hiccup in terms of outreach and service in many ways. People are afraid. This does not free us from the mandate to love and serve one another. It does, however, require that we develop new ways of reaching out to others. Phone calls remain a viable way for us to connect with people and not risk sharing covid. Card and letter writing are both tried and true ways of connecting. We have Facebook and zoom calls and other ways of connecting to people.

The body of Christ is being faced with new challenges and will not advance if we sit behind the wheel and rev the motor. We must work and put our faith in action. We are a very creative people. Our history shows that we can overcome most any obstacle. The break in church activity covid has provided will end whenever we decide. Even if the outside world doesn’t join us, we can and must continue meeting together.

The world has changed and we must change. This church has a legacy of great pastors. We have all known and been led by wonderful pastors and Sunday School teachers and youth leaders. But that is behind us. We must look forward to the new thing ahead of us. I don’t know what it might be or how it will function but I have a sense from the seminary courses I’m taking that it could allow us to serve one another in different ways. I take hybrid flex courses where we have class on zoom or in person.

Christ church needs to engage in these new ways. A virtual Bible study could be built on reading a chapter and posting something we learned on our Facebook page or our website or some other platform and hours later someone else goes to the page read s what was written offers loving feedback and then offers their own insights. This is a plus because we can stay in our warm homes , under the covers and still be part of the body. There would also be times when we would meet and grow in person.

I would suggest having church functions of some sort every month. Something like a picnic in the pavilion when it’s warm or a soup luncheon in the fellowship hall along with our family movie nights. I have taken this action myself friends. These past few months I have been putting together a website where I can post sermons for your reference and I will add blog posts of things I enjoy. For instance, seminary taught us how to analyze hymns and poems and pictures as they relate to scripture. I love that. I didn’t know I loved it until I started doing it. You can check that website out at JesuJusa.com. Loosely translated it means, Jesus save me or Jesus help me. That’s what I’m told anyway.

Covid is not going to go away anytime soon. It has become very lucrative to some people in powerful positions. We can do nothing about that business. These are things of the world. Our Kingdom is not of this world. We are called to love and to serve in Jesus’ name. That means the Kingdom of God is our business.

I am presenting that challenge to you today. We have some very capable people in this room. Let’s get back to the business of doing church but in a new way. Let us use our talents and our resources to reach our people. Some of us will need to take on new challenges like using a computer or smartphone. We must be willing to do something new to deal with the new world we live in. I’m calling on you to join me in entering 2022 with a new frame of mind looking for new innovations and new approaches to doing church work. We are the body or Christ and this is our job.

January 2, 2022, EPIPHANY SUNDAY

The story of the Magi coming to Christ is a story of royal envy. One group of followers has come seeking a king and they encounter another king who is immediately jealous of the other group. Herod was a supposed king of the Jews. He acquired the title by making a deal with the Roman power structure. In modern terms he might put us in mind of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jung Un because they both super paranoid and killed family and friends to prevent a possible revolt or assassination. There is a great deal of stress in being royalty and if you know you don’t really belong there. This is when the lunacy begins. Herod was that kind of king.

                We can be sure he was very disturbed by the Magi looking for the King of the Jews when Herod had taken the title for himself. It is also important to know that the Magi did not likely appear as our nativity sets present them. The Magi were wise and carried the label of magician in some of the things I read. The powerful part of who they were is in the fact that they understood and evidently studied astronomy. When this strange new star showed up in the night sky the Magi knew something important was happening. No doubt they began reading prophecies, including Hebrew Torah, to find out the importance of the star. We don’t seem to have a good handle on how they knew the star indicated the Messiah was coming but as we read today, they knew it meant the arrival of the Messiah and they were going to pay homage to this King.

                In going to meet a king you don’t go empty handed. The Magi had brought with them gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These were all expensive items related to royalty. The gold represents a king’s wealth and power. The Frankincense and myrrh were used for a fragrance in making the king’s home smell good and the myrrh we read about in John 19 was brought by Nicodemus to prepare the body of Jesus for a royal burial. So, the Magi knew what they were providing this king. If I were to add to our text I would suggest that they did not likely come alone. These Magi were clearly well educated and education takes away from time to do other things like learning military tactics. The Magi probably could not handle a sword or spear or bow or shield. It is likely they hired people to travel with them as protection. It is equally likely that they brought maidens to cook for them and people to care for the animals and so on. This group of three we celebrate in our creche, or nativity, was likely a band of many people hired by the Magi. Afterall, they were wealthy enough to have gold and frankincense and myrrh, expensive items, to give away.

                Herod would have been right in learning from them all that he could because the Magi presented a physical presence looking for the One born the King of the Jews.

                The Magi are important because they add science to our study of prophecy during this advent and Christmas season. We have looked at Micah, Isaiah, Zephaniah, and Jeremiah for prophetic evidence. The Magi add astrological evidence in support of the prophecies. Suddenly, what some might write off as a child’s story with all the prophets offering bits and pieces of the story is made very real when the Magi pointed to the star in the night sky and refer to it as “His star.” We have been following it and it is leading us to the King.

                This is where our Bible reading goes from being faith based to offering physically evidence for the people to see. We believe that Jesus came into the world to take away the sins of the world. Friends, the demons of hell also believe in Jesus as the Son of God and part of the Trinity who came to take away sins. We must move beyond our belief in Him as Lord and Savior to an all encompassing faith. This faith holds to the confidence that in His name we can move mountains. The dead will rise. The sick and infirmed will be healed and miracle after miracle will appear. This faith then moves us to change our lives and live according to God’s law. We change our minds about how we live because Jesus has changed us. We want to be like Him. This is especially true in this season of covid and social/political unrest.

                We have hope that Jesus is working in this for our good (Rom 8:28) while the world is looking for more covid money or they are frozen in fear. God’s people, like those enslaved in Egypt, are awaiting God’s response. God is going to do something. If your like me, I don’t know what to expect.

                The problem is that we get in our own way. We would like to be like the Magi and submit ourselves to Jesus after leaving our comfortable homes and traveling for months across dangerous lands looking for the King of Jews, but often we are hesitant. We hedge more to the likeness of Herod and we want to know the details of this Jesus, King of the Jews, but we don’t want to get too close because we might have to surrender to His authority as God and King and Messiah.

                Sometimes that means we don’t want to give up what is ours. We might say, “I’ve  got this good thing going on, Jesus. If I stop to follow You that will require me to give it up. Man, I’ve worked all may life for this. Jesus, can we work out a deal?” Sounds like something Herod would say. Jesus is not bargaining. His authority speaks for itself. Written about in the prophets and the law and the psalms and displayed in an angelic choir to the shepherds and now a star is leading the first of countless gentiles to come and adore Him, Christ the Lord. Still we want to hold onto what is ours: our character, our routines, our home. Jesus is calling friends, “come and follow Me” (Matt 4:19).

                The story of Epiphany highlights the two roads we can take. We can follow the Magi, note they are labeled as wise, or we can stay on our little throne like Herod and give ourselves a title and tell ourselves we have it under control. Scripture helps us decide: Jesus has issued His call upon our hearts. Rev 3:20 seals the deal Jesus makes; “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.” There is a great intimacy in sharing a meal and we do this with only those we love. Jesus is inviting us to dine with Him and it will become a reality in the wedding feast of the Lamb. Even now His invitation is calling us to do something different and allow Him access to our lives and even the depths of our heart.

                As we seek our way to this discovery of Jesus’ calling on our lives’ we are like the people in that 400 year period when the prophets fell silent before Jesus was born. We are looking for Jesus but the Word of God can be tough to follow. The prophets wrote Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. They also wrote “out of Egypt I called My Son.” And a voice heard in Ramah weeping and mourning. So what does that all mean? Putting it on a map leads everywhere on the compass. That’s no road map. God’s prophecies are to prove that Jesus is the Chosen One of God. It can be confusing to study and follow, but our faith in Jesus is how we display our love for Him. We get up and move toward Jesus as the Magi did. We go looking for Him. We bring Him our very best gifts – ourselves. And we surrender our lives so that the Kingdom of God might be advanced in our living out His Kingdom. We become the salt and the light. People see our good deeds much like the lamp on the lamp stand and they glorify God. This is showing our life altering faith in Jesus as the Risen Christ: the anointed One of God who was to come into the World. Friends, He has come. Bow down and worship Him. Give Him the treasure He desires; our hearts in loving devotion.

                Homework for this week (We have the mind of Christ 1 Cor 2:16). Take time this week to examine your hearts; do we have qualities of the Magi or King Herod? Are we jealous like Herod or rejoicing like the Magi? Do we want to destroy our enemies or do we accept God’s will? Do we lust for the things of the world or are we willing to wait on God’s perfect timing? Do we have pride in our station in life or are we willing to be humbled before God and man? Are we lazy like Herod or are we hard working like the Magi? The list goes on. We should be honest with ourselves and seek to do something positive with this examination. God already knows the truth. Invite Him to help with this assignment. If you write your responses on paper be sure to burn them or shred them. This is between you and Jesus. He is the Righteous Judge. Be reminded that as you go through this exercise Jesus loves you today just as He has from the beginning. He is longing for a deeper relationship with you. Let 2022 be the start of that closer walk with Jesus.

November 14, 2021 “Encouragement”

Hebrews 10: 19-25

            Today we will be looking at the way God has allowed us to be encouraged by the many offerings He has shared with us and our fellowship as the body of believers. We begin by understanding that it was the death of Jesus, His blood, not His life, that allows us to approach the throne of grace boldly. This type of ‘boldly’ isn’t the variety of arrogance, but the boldness of confidence in our faith. We have come to know in a very powerful way that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.

            This invitation to come to Christ is for all. If someone has never accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior then today is the day to do that. The assurance Jesus offers is for everyone. People are free to claim Jesus as their Lord whenever the Spirit calls them. The Apostle John wrote about that in John 1: 11-12: 

He came to what was his own,^[a] and his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God,

John is saying our faith is a giving and a taking. We were given Jesus from the hand of God and we may accept Him as our Savior and receive the gift of grace and forgiveness and life in His mighty name. Sometimes people wonder how we can know Jesus is the Chosen One of God. How can we have any idea this is the right path to follow?

These are legitimate concerns and we are not out of bounds wondering about these things. God has made every proof available for people to consider. This morning we will look at the scriptures and the sacraments as ways of seeing the evidence of God’s handiwork in our lives. These are things God knew needed to be done to provide physical signs of something spiritual taking place. We live in the world even as we are not of the world, so our physicality, the fact that we have earthly bodies and minds requires God reach us where we are in these bodies.

Scripture is a book we can own and carry with us and refer to often. Through God’s Word, we pick up His message for us much like a radio picks up the radio signal. We don’t see God coming off of the page and touching our hearts but we do feel that Spiritual impact changing our thinking. The Bible tells us God is real in more ways than the words, it is a spiritual event. But it is not enough to believe in Jesus as God or God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. Even the demons believe God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are real. We must take God in three persons as our Savior in faith. The words of the Bible are meant to help us with building and supporting our faith. We read of God’s love and cry out to Him for help and realize He is always there to hear our cries. His response stirs us to tears or to singing or pondering about these things. His Word is alive and will always reach us where and when we need it most. God is never early and He is never late. He is always right on time (Toby Mac).

Just as the Bible was not given to us to worship, so the sacraments are also gifts God has given us to help build our faith. Let’s consider how we can find Christ in the sacraments. Some other time I would like to offer an in-depth look at the sacraments in a sermon. Today we will work with a brief look at how they build our faith.

Communion builds or affirms our faith much the way a vitamin or a workout routine helps our bodies. Communion liturgy reminds us that it was God who sought us out from the very beginning and we went astray. God is all love and could not forget us but chased after us through the law and the prophets and in the fullness of time God sent His Son to save us. Jesus taught us about God the Father and His love for us, then He modeled such great love on the cross dying for our sins. We celebrate this great love when we share in the Communion liturgy remembering His body broken for us. Because of this work by Jesus Christ we can approach the throne of grace boldly. V 20 the writer of Hebrews shares the idea that the body of Jesus was torn like the Temple curtain allowing us full access to the throne of grace(McGee). We recall this action and celebrate it every time we eat the bread. Similarly in v22 we remember the blood that was shed to cleanse us of our sins by the sprinkling on our hearts. The writer of Hebrews also points to our bodies being washed with pure water in v 22. Baptism is the visible outward sign of God’s work in cleansing us of original sin. We are made new as we enter into the family of God through baptism.

We see these signs of God’s presence and His grace not as things to be worshipped but as evidence of His Holy presence. Some might argue well it’s not faith if you can see it. But this is the point. We are not worshipping the Bible or the bread and juice or baptismal water. The Bible is words on a page but the Spirit works in them to change us and guide us to Godly living. And Communion elements are things we buy at the store. They are just things, but Jesus gave us the liturgy to use in connection with these elements. Something occurs in our Spirits when we claim Christ as our own in eating the bread and drinking the juice. It’s not the elements, it’s the action of the Lord’s supper. The elements enter our body and become part of us. A Holy mystery. Likewise, the baptismal water that rolls off our skin is just water but we believe we are made new in the act of going under the water. Again, it is the physical work and the liturgy building our faith.

The writer of Hebrews is pointing out that by allowing Jesus to be a perfect offering for us, God made it so we may approach God’s presence boldly as we partake of scripture reading and the sacraments. There is, however, one final element we need to consider. That is the connection of the community of believers joined as the family of God in faith. Faith in Christ has parts that can be done alone or with others, like scripture reading and prayer for example. But by and large, we are to be joined in fellowship with like-minded believers as we are connected to God through Jesus.   

Theologian J. Vernon McGee offers a bit of light in this regard. This is in three layers. He writes that we draw near to God in faith. We draw near to hope lifting ourselves up and we draw near to one another in love. We are working at the levels of God, ourselves, and as a community of faith. These are the levels of faithful action the writer of Hebrews is asking us to work at.

Our text today says to spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together but encouraging one another as the day draws near. We are all in this faith walk together. Whether we are online or in-person, whether we attend every Sunday or once in a while, the orders are the same: love one another. We do this as we celebrate God’s Word and pray and sing hymns. Hebrews suggest proof of God’s love is also found in the Word and sacraments but adds that we also do good deeds and offer encouragement to one another in faith. The narthex is filled with opportunities to do good as Operation Christmas Child and Toys for Tots both have boxes to be filled.

The day is drawing near. There are wars and rumors of war, prophetic signs being seen and so on, but we are encouraged because we see evidence of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ everywhere. Let us never give up meeting together.

October 10, 2021 “Great High Priest”

I will attribute many of the ideas for today’s message from theologian N.T. Wright. Wright shares the experience of putting dishes away and being careless, allowing his finger to come in contact with a paring knife blade. Unknown to him was the fact that these new knives were double-edged and razor-sharp. Feeling a tickle near his hand he looked down and realized the touch of the knife had sliced open the end of his finger. Sometimes that’s all the more encounter we need to be impacted – just a slight touch.

We have often said here that God’s Word is alive and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. In this scripture, we are told of the Word of God penetrating our hearts and minds and knowing everything about us. It judges our thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. Nothing is hidden from God. Since the Word lays open everything – we realize any failure on our part to repent or strengthen our faith in Jesus will be judged even though we are forgiven of our sins. Scripture being alive teaches us how this works. The Word explains itself.

I was recently reminded of the David and Bathsheeba encounter told in 2 Samuel 11 and the purpose of that scripture. Even as it presents gory details and lust-filled adultery it is used to teach us a very powerful lesson of God’s grace. The point of the account is hidden and if the reader is not careful to read past the violence and adultery, a truism of God is overlooked. 

David did wrong in using his power as king to have Bathsheeba brought to him after seeing her bathing. Worse still, he did further wrong in having her husband murdered to cover up the seduction and her pregnancy. David was God’s own man, we read, and he failed to act like it.

Fast forward and the prophet Nathan confronts David about the sin and adds the prophetic phrase, thus says the Lord, “the child will die.” This would be heartbreaking for anyone but it was especially so to David because this baby boy was heir to the throne of Israel. David had gained him in violation of God’s law. The child would die. David repented and asked God to forgive Him and spare the child. God did forgive David but still, the verdict stood. The child died. 

What was happening here? Why did the child factor into this at all? 

God knew David’s heart and knew he was a man after God’s heart, but sin must be judged and righteous justice exacted. The story tells of God’s great love in forgiving us but that we are still responsible for the consequences of our sin. The truth of our deeds is known by God even as He still loves us. This is the power of God’s Word, alive and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. David and Bathsheeba provide a backdrop, a story, that demonstrates that fully.

In John 1:1 it reads “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Skipping down to verse 14 of that first chapter of John it reads, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling place among us.” The Word we understand to be Jesus Christ the only righteous Judge. Everyone will give an account to Him of what we have done.

At the same time, our reading from Hebrews points out that Jesus is also our Great High Priest. He has ascended into Heaven and can empathize with our weaknesses and sins because He lived as a human for those 33 years. He knows what we are going through. His greatest desire is to have a loving relationship with us and help us to overcome the world through His love and avoid the penalties of His righteous judgment. 

Today that relationship is available to anyone who wishes to draw near to God in the person of Jesus Christ. This relationship goes beyond salvation to a recognition of God as Lord of life. Reading the Word of God must become part of our daily routine in order for that to happen. We can grow closer to God only through prayer and the reading of His Word. It is alive and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It will change the lives of those who read it and draw near to Him.

Our reading today is from Hebrews 4. Going back to Hebrews 3: 1-6 we see our Great High Priest compared to the original High Priest, Moses. Both of them are deliverers of God’s people but the comparison begins to break down after that. It’s not really fair to compare a man to God but bear with me. Jesus is superior to Moses, who was a sort of foreshadowing of Christ. Jesus fulfilled everything Moses was trying to do and Jesus did this work perfectly. Let’s look at a few examples.

Moses lead the people through the Red Sea, a sort of baptism for the Israelites. They were taken from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the wilderness. After 40 years the Israelites who had been in Egypt all died and never entered the promised land because of their sin. It was their children in the next generation who entered the land of milk and honey.

Jesus leads us through baptism to forgiveness into a new life that allows us to be part of God’s family. We are freed of our sins because of the single perfect sacrifice He offered by giving Himself over on the cross. The High Priest offered many sacrifices but they did not atone for sin completely. By dying, Jesus saved us all in one action. Our new life in God begins the moment we first believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. 

Moses also offered a foreshadowing of communion in a roundabout way by crying out to God when the Israelites complained they had nothing to eat. God rained manna down from heaven on them with the dew of the night. At dawn, everyone gathered as much as they wanted. Still, the people were not happy and wanted water in abundance. God told Moses to go to the rock at Horeb and strike the rock with his staff and the water poured out. God had provided both the bread and the drink for the people. 

In John 6: 35- 40 Jesus is addressing a group of religious leaders. He declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”   

Often we believe this new life in Jesus Christ is something that will happen in the future when time ends and Jesus comes to live with us eternally (we are going to Him actually). But if you noticed how Jesus spoke of His purpose, He came so that anyone who comes to Him will never go thirsty and they will never be hungry. He is not speaking of food and drink of the earthly sort, but of those spiritual blessings that come when we know Him and call Him Savior. It is a sort of here and now and in the future blessing that is another of the mysteries of our faith. In this life on earth, we enjoy fellowship with Him in the blessings He shares with us abundant in love and grace. We see Jesus blessing us every day. Are we paying attention?  Are we thankful?

One blessing I would again encourage you to consider is feeding on the Word of God. It is available to us all. Before us, in the pews, we have copies of God’s Word. It is free for the taking and if you would like a copy please see me and we will provide it without cost. As you take in His Word, allow it to become something of a routine. My encouragement is to read it every day and discover Jesus, who is the Word of God, alive and active and more than ready to meet our needs and to bless us and have mercy even as the world seeks to tempt us. Take every opportunity to know Jesus better by sharing His Word.