Rick's Methodist Musings

Further Along the Road: Serving Others

2011-10-22T08:03:00.004-05:00

The Lay Speakers at Fairview offered the message, "The Road of Discipleship." The first two portions of that message, "Loving God," and "Loving Others," were posted in the previous two Blogs. You may want to start there. Jesus tells us that the "gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few that find it." (Matthew 7:14) The Good News is that there are resting places, way points, dwelling places along the road. We like to picture them as park benches. Please join us as we travel the road that leads to life.

(Laity Voice Four) And the last Park Bench is “Serving Others.” The work of serving others is another form of love.

Scott Peck teaches us that love implies effort. We are to extend ourselves against the normal inertia of laziness and fear. Loving, extending ourselves, overcoming fear is not sedentary, it requires effort. Love requires effort. In fact, Scott Peck emphasizes that if our act is not an act of work or courage, it is not love.
Serving others is an act of work or courage that nurtures the spiritual growth of another and therefore it is an act of love. That understanding may help us bring together what most of us believe are difficult passages. Remember this passage from James? (2:14-17) “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has not works is dead.”

Or how about this one from 1 John? (3:17-18) “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help? Little children, let us love not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”
If our actions involve work or courage, they are love. James could have easily said, “faith without love is dead.” I think we can understand that.

So, how are we doing? How is the love of serving others playing out at Fairview and in the Missouri United Methodist Church? I thought I take a few minutes to follow up Serve2011, the day the church left the building to serve our communities.

(Show Mission Cast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_hcovxgac8 )

We work to change lives, to transform lives, to nurture the spiritual growth of another. For Serve2011, Fairview worked on Jim’s house. Jim suffers from Cerebral Palsy. There is no doubt that as a result of our efforts, Jim was able to see God more clearly and because of his improved circumstance to pursue a relationship with God more easily. What happened that day in Jim’s house was love. Love is a verb! And it takes place during the time we dwell around the park bench of “Serving Others.”

Close (Laity Voice One)

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and road is hard that leads to life, and few will find it.” (Matt 7:13-14)

Most of us are on the interstate, four lanes, limited access as we speed through life without the time, the effort or the courage to love, to develop relationships with God and others, to make a transforming difference in the lives of others through service.

That is the narrow road, the one few will find. It is the road less traveled by, and it is the road that leads to life. To life. That is what being a follower, a disciple of Jesus Christ offers, Life.

It is the road any one of can take if we will choose the rest stop and give God our time through prayer and reading Scripture and listening to him.
Then to give him our time through weekly worship, being here, dwelling on that park bench that focuses our lives on Him, connects to Him, begins that journey of love of Him. We really begin our journey on the Road of Discipleship by “Loving God.”

But it’s not just a solitary walk in the woods, it is a hike we take with others in community where we connect with others, love others in obedience to God’s command. The second park bench where we dwell in “Loving Others.”

Then, we learn to “Serve Others,” changing lives in Jesus Christ.

And through it all, God loves us, we grow spiritually, and we too are changed.

And it’s not just a stroll, but a journey, one where we invite others along, sharing the Good News of the love of God as we learn to Love Him, Love others, serve the world, changing lives in Jesus Christ. It is the journey on the Road of Discipleship. So may it be in all of our lives. Amen.

Along the Road: Loving Others

2011-10-22T07:51:00.003-05:00

The Lay Speakers at Fairview offered the message, "The Road of Discipleship." The first portion of that message, "Loving God," was posted in the previous Blog. You may want to start there. Jesus tells us that the "gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few that find it." (Matthew 7:14) The Good News is that there are resting places, way points, dwelling places along the road. We like to picture them as park benches. Please join us as we travel the road that leads to life.

(Laity Voice Three) The second step, the second park bench, the second way-station on the Road of Discipleship is “Loving Others,” connecting to others, learning from others through God’s gift of community. Jesus was very clear, “By this you will be known as my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John says, “Because God first loved us, little children, we ought to love one another.”

The early church gives us the best examples, “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers….they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread together at home and ate food with glad and generous heart.” Acts 2:42,46

Paul’s churches that we read about in the New Testament were not buildings, but gatherings of small groups in homes, house churches.

Wesley reenergized the Church of England with small groups. Wesley was asked, “How do we escape the wrath to come?” another way of saying, “How do we become disciples?” Or “what is the Road of Discipleship?” Wesley gathered people in diverse groups across the English country side and in so doing set the stage for the transformation of a nation. They did so because they experienced the power of Community and the love of community and they were nurtured in their spiritual growth through community and they were changed.

It is through our small groups like Joy Group, Disciple Bible Study, Dinner Groups, Small Studies, Sunday School, that relationships are formed, that friendships are made, that caring occurs, that growth happens, that love prospers, that disciples are nurtured.

Bishop Schnase emphasizes that there are many things you simply cannot do alone. You cannot learn to love alone. You cannot learn to be patient alone. You cannot learn to be kind and considerate alone. You cannot learn to forgive alone, you cannot learn to care for another alone, you cannot be held accountable alone. It is in community that we learn to love others.

And just as in Loving God, connecting to others, learning from others, loving others takes Time. We learn in relationship and it takes Time. And because it is so important, small groups, community will receive increased emphasis here at Fairview in coming months. We need to dwell there. So the next park bench on the Road of Discipleship is “Loving Others.”

The Road of Discipleship

2011-10-22T07:01:00.012-05:00

On October 9th, The Lay Speakers at Fairview United Methodist Church were offered the opportunity to speak. We chose to talk to the congregation about the pathway to discipleship, in this case based on Jesus' guidance to take the "narrow road." How is it that we become a disciple of Jesus Christ? Because of the length, I've chosen to break it into three parts. The last two segments can be read in subsequent blogs. Join us along the "Road." Jesus said, "It is the road that leads to life." It's a road you don't want to miss.

The Road of Discipleship
(Matthew 7:13-14)

Introduction (Laity Voice One)

Robert Frost ends his classic poem, “The Road Not Taken,” saying, “And I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” All the difference.

In 1979, M. Scott Peck released his book whose title was built on the teachings of Jesus and the poem of Robert Frost. Scott Peck entitled it The Road Less Traveled. It was a gift of love. It remained on the “New York Times” best seller list for over 10 years. It is a book about love and about spiritual growth. It is the road of discipleship, one few take. It is the narrow road. If you haven’t read it, you should. If you’ve read it, be kind to yourself by reading it again.

It begins with the statement, “Life is difficult.” We know that. Jesus’ disciples knew that. Peck’s book is a gift to those of us who choose the narrow way, the road less traveled. It begins with a practical, workable definition of love and becomes a guide for my Christian walk.

How we define love makes all the difference. Jesus says to Peter at the close of the Gospel of John, “Peter, do you love me?” Jesus, what do you mean by love? Peter didn’t know. Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” Jesus, do you mean physically or spiritually? Jesus, what do you mean by love?

Jesus said, “By this you will be known as my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Do we know what he means by love?

He said the greatest commandment was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Are we to embrace everyone we meet? What does Jesus mean by love?

James said, “You will do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is certainly some physical aspect, but there is more to it than that.

Jesus said, “No greater love than this, that one would lay down their life for their friends.” If we run around trying to find ways to do that, we are only going to have one shot at it.
So how do we define love? How does Scott Peck define love? Peck says that love is “The will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” (p 81) (repeat for emphasis) Love is will. Love involves effort. Love results in transformation. Think of what God did for us, to transform us. It is the ultimate will. To think that he would will himself to come into the world for our sake. That he would extend himself, not just himself, but his arms on a cross for us to show us that there was no limit to how far he would go to show his love for us. And he would do it of course to nurture our spiritual growth, our relationship with him. Certainly there is not greater love than that.

Body

So where does the road of discipleship begin? It begins with God.

Everything we do begins with God. Wesley described it as God’s nudging grace, what he called prevenient grace, grace before we even know. We are incapable of making that first step by ourselves. We make it in response to God’s nudging.

Even prayer begins with God. (Lift your hands heavenward.) I want you to take a few seconds to pray. Bow your heads, close your eyes, lift your hands heavenward. Listen, feel God’s direction for your prayer. Amen. Our prayers begin with God. And that’s where the Road of Discipleship begins.

(Laity Voice Two) All of our road, our prayers begin with God. As this presentation was coming together, I was lying in bed, saying my prayers when I decided to say the Lord’s prayer. “Our Father.” I often pause at that point and listen, feel for what God is directing me to pray for or to say to me in answer to prayer. Just then, there was a notice on my iPhone on the bedstand beside me saying the Cardinals had beaten the Phillies 5-nothing! Now let me tell you. We were on the farm. Down in a hollow. No Service. Prayers come from God! There may have been more to managing the Cardinals down the stretch than Tony La Russa knows. Enough “Angels in the Outfield” stuff.

Okay. I want to begin the Road of Discipleship in a very unusual place. A place I would daresay none of you will ever visit. But it’s a story about not only place but of time. It’s a place on US Highway 18 in Gregory County South Dakota. It is in the town of Herrick, the town Rosemary grew up in. When she grew up there, it was a town of 300 with five or six institutions of significance: The small Methodist Church that still thrives, Fortuner’s butcher shop, the Post Office, Anhorn’s Grocery, the Pool Hall, and you might throw in the school. The town is only a hundred now. The school is closed. The grocery store is closed. The Post Office will be shortly closed. The butcher shop where hunters used to say had the best bologna, Herrick bologna, in the world, is closed. But the Pool Hall is still open, Bernie’s place. It is the town gathering place. The Hunters used to say it had the best chocolate ice cream anywhere. The chocolate ice cream is gone, but it was and still is the only place in town to gather. After church on Sunday, where do you think we go to gather? Bernie’s Place, the Pool Hall.

I don’t think I would ever be able to adequately describe Bernie’s Place to you. Suffice it to say, I tell Rosemary it’s the place where you go to get you immune system kick started.

But it’s more than a place. It’s time. Bernie and Marilyn, now in their seventies, raised their six children there. Their grandchildren spent time there. Bernie and Marilyn live there. Live there. It is not just their place, it is time. Marilyn’s smiling face is always there, all the time. Bernie is there unless he’s fishing with one of his grandkids. Fishing—time. Reba McIntyre said she learned more about the Bible fishing with her grandmother than she ever did in church. Time.

When we were there in September, their oldest daughter Janet, now middle aged, was there helping her parents, she was canning pickles while talking and serving the customers. She was spending time with her Mother. By the way, the place is no longer known for its chocolate ice cream, but for Janet’s cinnamon rolls. While we were there another of the grown children, Dan, came through to spend time with his parents. Time.

Oh, and if you want a dozen ears of corn, you simply spend time at the card table or at the bar while Janet goes out back a few steps to the garden and picks a dozen ears. The same with tomatoes. By the way, Janet doesn’t have to be there. She has a successful career of her own and is the wife of a successful farmer and rancher. Dan doesn’t have to be there. He runs a successful seed operation. It’s about time.

And the grandchildren had spent time there. Not all successes but on the wall is one granddaughter’s picture playing basketball for the University of Nevada. Pictures of two others playing basketball for the University of Sioux Falls. One grandchild is a school superintendent. Another is a grade school principal.

How did this happen? Certainly not riches from a pool hall in a town of one hundred. Bernie and Marilyn just get by. They are poor by any economic standard. In terms of life, they are rich. How so? I would say that it was about time. Parenting, nurturing is about time.

This is what Scott Peck says about parenting and time: “Parents who devote themselves to their children even when it is not demanded…will perceive in the subtle needs for discipline… they will take the time to make..minor adjustments, listening.. responding.. tightening.. loosening.. giving little lectures, little stories, little hugs and kisses, little admonishments, little pats on the back….” It is about nurturing our children, giving them the tools for life. It is about time. And time is about love. With God it is no different.

It is amazing what time will do when almost no other resources are available.
When we give our time to Jesus, we learn to be like him, we learn the skills for walking the narrow path, we grow spiritually. We become more and more like him, and we become his followers. We are on the road to discipleship.

How is it that we come to love God? We begin with our time. Isn’t that true of all the things we love? We give them our time. We give time to our children, we give time to our hobbies, we give the things we love our time. To learn to love God, we need to give him our time.
We follow the example of Jesus. Jesus gave his time. Luke tells us that “[Jesus] went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom.” (4:16)

We follow the example of Jesus, and we come to church. We make it customary. We give God time for our prayers, time for our presence, time for our worship, we are here on Sunday morning, giving time to hear the scripture read, time to hear the word expounded, time for our prayers, public and private. Worship is a time we give our love to God.

Our love of God begins with time, and over the course of time we are subtly changed. As we begin our love of God, we experience the love of God in return and we are changed, transformed, we grow spiritually. That’s what love is about.

We grow spiritually because God first loved us. He had the will to step out of eternity into our time to extend himself for us and our salvation through his mighty acts in Jesus Christ to bring us into a right relationship with him. For what? So that he could nurture us and our spiritual growth. We love because God first loved us.

So we’re on the road less traveled, the narrow road, the road that Jesus told us would be hard. But there is good news. There are rest places, way stations, dwelling spots along the road. I like to think of them as park benches, because we can dwell there. The first “park bench” on the Road of Discipleship is, loving God, connecting to God, learning from God, dwelling with him, giving him our time. This dwelling place is our worship and it is the starting place for “Loving God.”

Why Simple Church? Why SOLM

2011-07-24T20:24:00.005-05:00

There were some issues raised on the evaluation forms that are just too important to leave in the file, and it is my intention to address those through emails, blogs, and the molsm.tableproject.org. Please continue the conversation by replying to the email or at my blog site. In many of your comments, there seemed to be confusion on the task.

Getting to the basics: Why Simple Church and what was our task at School of Lay Ministry?

There are five (maybe six if you count the alternate ending to the Gospel of Mark) commissions in the New Testament (Mt 28:16-20, Mk 16:15, Lk 24:47, Jn 20:21, and Acts 1:8) We are clearly called by Scripture and the doctrine of the United Methodist Church to make disciples. Further is it the theme of the New Testament to bring the Kingdom of God near. We pray it, if not daily, weekly, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.” We are to transform a broken world—changing lives in Jesus Christ—make disciples, transform the world.

Yet we do not. The church is in decline. We are ineffective in making disciples. Some enter and are not formed. Others, who want to be formed, leave our churches because we do not or cannot show them the way. Our churches are sick and ineffective in following the Great Commission. Yet the authors or Simple Church found that “the healthiest churches in America tended to have a simple process for making disciples. They had clarity about the process. They moved Christians intentionally through the process. They focused on the elements of the process. And they aligned their entire congregations to this process.” (Rainer and Geiger, Simple Church, page ix)

Since our churches do not have a clear method of making disciples (Nobody at SOLM stood up and said, “We have an intentional, visible pathway to discipleship.”), our task was to first be clear about our mission, then to develop an intentional discipleship process that we could recommend to our congregations. The reason we wanted to be clear about the mission, is that the mission drives the process. If a disciple is to love God, part of our process is to connect people in a loving way to God. If a disciple is to love others, we need to connect people in a loving way to others. If a disciple is to be in ministry to a world of need, we need our process to connect them to ministry.

Wouldn’t it be great if our mission not only drove the process but was the process? St. Paul’s in Joplin restates Matthew 28:19-20a as “leading people to an active faith in Jesus Christ where we define an active faith as loving God, loving others, serving the world.” Their mission tells them not only what they are to do, but what a disciple looks like to them. (I’ll have another blog on the Scriptural and Wesleyan basis for such a mission and discipleship description.)

The next task would be “How is a disciple formed?” Just in case you want to follow along in the book, Simple Church, you might want to look at the bold headings on pages 236-240.

We can make “How disciples are formed” simple or complex. While drilling down, asking the questions “how?” five times (for example what does loving God look like? Well, we worship Him. What is worship? Well, it is song and prayer, and hearing the Scripture read and proclaimed. It is offering ourselves to him. We can then ask what each of these look like. What is a good song? Now you’ve asked a question that will take pages to resolve, or not.

For now, let’s stay at the top level. Simply put, we learn to love others in great worship and in relationship with others. This weekend, we experienced great worship on Friday night. We heard Bill O’Neal tell us in his awesome sermon that Acts 2.42 was the basis for growing in love of God and others. We heard of programs like “Alpha” that can move people toward an understanding of God, and of other non-threatening small group studies that can both lead people to know and love God and enter into authentic relationship with one another.

Keeping with simplicity, if a disciple is one who loves God, loves others, and serves the world, then the process of forming them is connecting people to God, connecting people to others, and connecting people to ministry. And that seems to be a logical sequence and in order of increasing commitment (We know it’s messier than that, but stay with the program.).

Simple Church’s next task (page 239) was to take a single church-wide program and place it along side each of the steps. It’s obvious to me that worship is the first one, and to the extent it can be so, great worship. We all can do it better. We dwelled on small groups as a means of connecting to others. Most of us have much work to do. We introduced missions as a means of connecting to ministry. Actually, many of you are probably doing pretty well in this step. If not, flesh it out.

We also talked about movement as being essential (Andy Stanley is quoted in Simple Church as saying that “the church must be designed to never leave people alone.” (page 100). For example, it may be just too great a leap to go from worship to small groups. We need to create small achievable steps, like non-threatening larger group environments of short duration like “Alpha” or other starter groups. We must design our church, our process, to move people to greater levels of spiritual maturity.

This is really about as far as we got with our task. We had you begin preparing a presentation to key laity and your pastor and to nail down some first steps to get you moving along the process. In my own church, my recommended first steps are these: Emphasize radical hospitality and great worship (moving people to and then experiencing God). Then begin small group leadership training while our church’s small group style is being refined. Our new pastor needs adopt and roll out our new mission statement, probably in September.

Now there is work left to be done. When the process is understood, the resources of the congregation need to be aligned to it; and here is the hard part, we need to focus. The programs of the church that do not contribute to making disciples need to be eliminated. The process needs to be uncluttered.
I hope this gets your thoughts started for your home church. Our task is to make disciples, changing lives in Jesus Christ. We must accept that and do it!

Other thoughts later. I’ll be posting this on my blog and at molsm.tableproject.org in the SOLM group. I welcome your comments.

A Maunday Thursday Sermon

2011-04-20T06:33:00.011-05:00

This sermon was delivered 4/14/11, the last in a Thursday evening Lenten series at Fairview UMC. The series theme was "Finals Week," developed by a Creative Worship team of Lay Speakers from Mid-State District, awesome sounds, images, messages. Each of the previous sermons has taken a day of Jesus' final week, beginning on Palm Sunday. This sermon was for Holy Thursday. The sermon title was “So That” (Jesus Passed Finals Week For You SO THAT). (1 Cor 11:23b-25; 10:16-17)

A. Introduction
1. On July 26th last year, a Sunday, I came home in the afternoon after a weekend away and found Rosemary on the living room couch. She had been in prayer all day, and when she wasn’t in prayer, she had been on the phone with her nieces and nephews in South Dakota.I’m an only child. Rosemary’s sister Dorothy has six kids, our extended family, my family. Dorothy and her husband Harley, their daughter Anita and granddaughter Sally Mae had been on the way from the farm to church that morning. Daughter Anita had been in the right rear seat. Sally Mae, age seven, had been buckled in the center seat.It was a typical trip to church. Dorothy is communion steward and Sally Mae had learned from her so that even when it wasn’t communion Sunday, Sally Mae would take her own bread and grape juice in the car and have her on little communion on the way to church.

2. The gravel road to the highway was a section line, a straight shot, and the intersecting roads were section lines, all straight shots. High speeds. As he approached one of these intersections, Harley said to Dorth, “You really need to watch this one, that kid down there never slows down.” As he said it, he saw the car speeding toward them at sixty miles per hour. His premonition allows him to hit the accelerator so that instead of a direct T-bone, the car hit the left rear quarter panel spinning the car so hard that it ripped the wheels right out from under it.

3. So when I got home in the middle of Sunday afternoon, Harley and Dorothy were in the hospital. Neither Rosemary nor the nieces and nephews were sure of their condition, but it seemed promising. Daughter Anita had had to be cut out of the car and it caused a long delay. She was in the ambulance on the way to Sioux Falls, three hours away, and it was certain she’d need surgery. Because of the delay, it would be 10 hours between the accident and surgery. The force of the accident, transmitted through her seat belt had ruptured her colon.And Sally Mae, seven year old Sally Mae—the only thing wrong with Sally Mae was that she was covered in grape juice. It was almost as if it had been a protective shield of grace, of grape grace.

4. It’s Thursday night of Holy Week, the night that Christ instituted the sacrament we call Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist, or the Great Thanksgiving. It was the night of Jesus’ Final Exam, the tests he passed SO THAT we could live our lives differently. In our time together, I want to talk about the events of that night and together we’ll experience this mystery we call Holy Communion and why it has changed everything for and how we live our lives, and the hope we have within us.

B. Body
1. So it’s Thursday of Holy Week, Jesus’ Final Week, his Finals Week. From the text, we don’t know much about what went on during the day. Jesus may have spent the day in the Temple teaching as he did all the other days; or he may have spent the day in Bethany contemplating what he knew was going to happen. We know that Thursday was the first day of Passover. Passover was and still remains the most important Festival of the Jewish Calendar. At the time of Jesus, Jews had been commemorating Passover for 1400 years to remember the mighty acts of God in delivering them out of Egypt, out of slavery, out of the house of bondage. On that night, 1400 years earlier, God had acted with a mighty hand and the angel of death had visited every first-born in Egypt, but death had passed over the houses of the Israelites. Pharaoh had let the Israelites go. God had commanded the Israelites to remember this day and for 1400 years they had.

2. It was for the Passover Festival that Jesus and the disciples had come to Jerusalem. We believe that as many as two million had made that journey from all over the world. Thursday was the first day of Passover. The disciples had prepared the Passover feast in an Upper Room in Jerusalem. Matthew tells us, “When it was evening, He took his place with the twelve.Now the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke take three or four paragraphs to talk about their supper that night. John, the Gospel of John, on the other hand, takes five chapters. Five Chapters!

3. I’m standing here in the serving area of a table that would have been like the ones used by Jesus and the apostles. You might be surprised to know that DaVinci had it wrong, all wrong.Rather than a table, we now know from archeological evidence that the people of the first century would have been around a triclinium—tri for three sides, and clinium, the root from which we get the word recline. It was customary to “recline at table,” feet away, and resting on the left elbow, eating with and passing food with the right hand.Jesus was the host. Again, from archeological evidence, the host reclined here, the second place in, probably closest to the door. It was the second position in so that places of honor could be at the host’s right and left. So you see, DaVinci had it very wrong.

4. In John chapter 13, it tells us that Jesus began the evening by doing a shocking thing. Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist, put water in a basin and washed the disciple’s feet, their dirty, stinking feet. Jesus performed the task normally done by servants or slaves. He went around the table to each one, ending with Peter. We believe Peter was reclining here, we’ll tell you why in a minute.When he was done he said, “Do you know what I have done for you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I your Teacher and Lord have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. For I have set an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”Later in Chapter 13, Jesus is to give the disciples a new commandment, words to go with his acts, his example. Jesus will say, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you have love for one another. By this you will be known as my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

5. After Jesus had washed their feet and at the end of the meal, he announced his betrayal, “Very truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” Can you imagine the stir that that must have caused around the table? The conversation? It is from this exchange that we know how the disciples were seated.
a. We do know that the host sat here with places of honor at the right and left. We’ve also guessed that Peter was here. He was the last one whose feet Jesus had washed.
b. Now John’s Gospel tells us that John (John calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved) was reclining next to Jesus. It says Peter motioned to John to ask Jesus who it is?
c. Here I think the words of the King James Version are helpful. This is how it describes the scene: Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom, one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it is of whom he spake. It says, “He [John] then lying on Jesus’ breast said, “Lord, who is it?”
d. Now, we don’t use the words breast and bosom in polite conversation much any more, but it sure is useful here. Can you see that John is here, directly across from Peter, leaning on the bosom of Jesus, or lying on his breast as he leaned back to ask, “Lord, who is it?”Jesus here, answered, “It is the one whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And after he dipped the bread he gave it to Judas Iscariot.

6. So let me ask you, if John was in this seat of honor, who was in the other? (Judas) Isn’t that interesting. Judas had betrayed Jesus, and Jesus knew it, yet he placed Judas in the seat of honor.That’s a test that Jesus passed that night, that I’ll bet we would have had a great deal of difficulty passing.

7. We’re in the Gospel of John. In just a minute we’re going to go back to Matthew to talk about the Lord’s Supper, but before we do I want to quickly outline John’s five chapters:

Ch 13 – (The one we’ve been talking about. Footwashing, betrayal and a New Commandment that we love one another.

Ch 14 – Wonderful words of assurance. You’re familiar with how it begins: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go, I will come again to take you to myself.”

Ch 15 – is about relationship, our dependent relationship with Him: “I am the vine, you are the branches…apart from me you can do nothing.” But with this relationship, drawing on him, we can be fruitful. And relationship has everything to do with joy in our lives. Jesus closes by saying, “I tell you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”

Ch 16 – The Gift of the Holy Spirit. God says, “I will not leave you orphaned. I will not leave you alone.

Ch 17 – Jesus’ prayer for us: for his disciples, for the church, for the world.

8. So, back to the Gospel of Matthew. They are at table. “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, he broke it, gave it to his disciples and said, “This is my body.”Now, for my Scriptures for tonight, those that Bridget read for us, I actually used passages from 1 Corinthians, Paul’s letter of instruction to the church at Corinth, in this case his instruction about the Lord’s Supper. Why? Paul’s letters were actually written years and years before the gospels. These words about the Lord’s Supper were the earliest recorded. The Lord’s Supper was well established as an integral part of gathering well before the letter was written. The Lord’s Supper was a part of worship in the church from the beginning.Not only that, do you realize that these words, these words from Jesus from 1 Corinthians are the earlier recorded quotations of Jesus that we have in the Bible. Jesus’ earliest quote is his institution of the Lord’s Supper.

9. The early church and St. Paul thought communion was important, that it was central to their faith, their worship, their walk of discipleship: “Do this in remembrance of me.” Remembrance is a packed word.
a. It means remembering the past, the mighty acts of God in Jesus Christ for us and for our salvation.
b. It means remembering for us to look inward and examine ourselves and knowing that if we confess our sins that God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse from all unrighteousness.
c. It means looking outward for we are commanded to love one another, even as I have loved you.
d. It means remembering to look forward to the promises of God in Jesus Christ. “I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again to take you to myself…. If it were not so would I have told you?”
e. Remembering means looking upward at the cross of Christ, for God in Jesus Christ is present at the meal. He is the host of the meal.
f. And remembering means knowing that God will never leave us alone, that he will always be present with us in the Power of the Holy Spirit.
g. “Do this in remembrance of me.”

10. The table of the Lord, the table of Jesus Christ is all those things and more. Something happens at the table that changes us. It is a mystery. In fact, the English word we use, sacrament, in Greek is the word “mysterion.” The Lord’s Supper changes us, we know not how. It is a mystery.
a. How is it that God can take ordinary bread, ordinary wine, ordinary us, us, and make them holy, set us apart? It is a mystery, but this we know:
b. Jesus is present, grace is present, we are covered in grace.
c. In fact, John Wesley called the sacrament a means of grace. A means by which we can immerse ourselves in the grace of God, make ourselves available to his grace.
d. Just as Sally Mae was covered in grace that morning. Can you not see, can you not feel that grape colored translucent shield surrounding Sally Mae as she was present at the Table of the Lord that morning? Even if that table was in the backseat of her car. We cannot know, we cannot understand, but we know that she was covered in grape juice, she was covered in grace.

11. The Table of the Lord is ready. It is not the Table of Fairview, this church or any church or denomination, it is the Lord’s Table and all are invited, all are welcome.You will be offered the loaf where you may break off a small piece and dip a corner of it in the grape juice. You may take it standing here in readiness to serve. You may take it kneeling or at table in prayer and reverence feeding on him in your hearts. If you are unable to come forward and would like to partake, make yourself known to the ushers and we will serve you at your seats.Please come, please come to the table of the Lord.

(After everyone is seated, the lights go out for 10 seconds. When they come back on, Jesus is in prayer in Gethsemane.)

12. The Bible tells us that after supper, and after they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives where there was a garden and there Jesus prayed in great distress:
a. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will but thine be done.”
b. We know then that the guards came along with Judas who betrayed him with a kiss.
c. Jesus told those present, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will send 12 legions of angels?” And then Jesus allowed himself to be taken away.

C. Close
1. With that Jesus chose to accept his Father’s cup. Jesus chose to take the Final Exam. He could have chosen not to take the exam at all.

2. It was our exam, not his, one that we could never pass; but Jesus passed the Final Exam for us SO THAT. SO THAT
a. So that you can be at table with Jesus, seated beside Jesus, dine with Jesus, even though from time to time you betray him, we can have a relationship with Jesus. “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and dine with you and you with me.” We can dine with him, we can have a personal relationship with Jesus.
b. Jesus passed Finals Week for you so that you can see the mighty of God in Jesus Christ for you and for your salvation.
c. So that you can look inward and lay your sins before Christ with the sure and certain knowledge that they will be forgiven. The man said, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.”
d. Jesus passed Finals Week for you, so that we can be obedient disciples of Jesus Christ, looking outward and serving a world in need, for we are called to love one another. “A new commandment I give you that you love one another.”
e. So that you can look forward to the promises of God. Have an eternal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. In my Father’s house are many rooms, many dwelling places, many mansions. “There’s a mansion just over the hilltop.” So that you can have an eternal relationship with Jesus Christ.
f. So that God will be with you always in the presence of the Holy Spirit. “I come to the garden alone…and he walks with you and he talks with you, and he tells you you are his own, and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other will ever know.”
g. Jesus passed Finals Week for you so that, and here’s the good part, here's the part that I love: So that you may have life and it abundantly. So that you life may be full. So that Christ wells up in you. So that Christ’s joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. So that you may be filled with joy of Christ and immersed in his grace.
h. So that in some mysterious way you are changed. The filling and fulfilling relationship with Christ will not and cannot leave you alone.So that you will never again be the same. Jesus passed the final exam for you so that.

3. The ushers are coming forward to give you your diploma for Finals Week. It is a diploma that you did not earn for a test you did not pass. Jesus passed it so that we may have life, we may have joy, we may have abundance.Every time you look at this diploma on your refrigerator or on your mirror, “Jesus passed Finals Week for me… SO THAT” You fill in the blank. Only you can fill in the blank. It is your life. It is your relationship with him. You joyfully fill in the blank and give thanks. So may it be in all our lives. Amen.

Qs and As About Safe Water for Haiti

2011-03-14T18:55:00.003-05:00

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God…you would have asked of Him and He would have given you living water.” John 4:10

Q: Why aren’t we supporting UMC Missions?
A: Haiti and the people of Haiti are on the hearts of the United Methodist Church. We’ve been in Haiti. UMCOR has been in Haiti for years. You may recall that the director of UMCOR, Rev. Sam Dixon, lost his life in the earthquake a year ago because he was there. Meeting the needs of the Haitian people is a UMC priority. You might check out http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/work/emergencies/ongoing/haitiearthquake to see 33 pages of UMCOR activities. And we would recommend giving to UMCOR, Advance #418325 to support these efforts. If your passion is safe water, we can directly impact the problem, short and long term, by supporting the efforts of the Safe Water Team.

Q: What are the administrative costs associated with our donations through the Safe Water Team?
A: Since we are designating our funds, 100 percent go to product and delivery. In addition the Letter of Intention we have signed with the Safe Water Team agrees to match every donation that we make by July 1, 2011. Therefore the effectiveness of our donations is 200 percent!

Q: What is UMCOR doing in the area of Water and Sanitation and why aren’t we supporting them?
A: The reason UMCOR is so effective and has such immediate impact is that they direct funds to high impact agencies already on the ground like the Red Cross (secular) or Church World Service (religious). See http://haiti.ngoaidmap.org/sectors/13 for ongoing projects funded through other organizations. UMCOR is now looking for long-term, sustainable solutions to the problems of unsafe water and poor sanitation. It will take a variety of solutions to meet those needs. We believe that Hydraid Bio Sand Water Filters are one of those. While we are raising funds to put them in place, we (Safe Water Team and the Missouri Conference UMC) are working with UMCOR to be part of their long-term solution.

Q: What is the Water and Sanitation Crisis all about?
A: A billion people lack access to safe water; 2.2 million die every year, mostly children. In other words, a child dies every 15 second from water borne disease. See http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts to check out the facts. Unfortunately, even when water is available, it is more than likely contaminated with human or animal feces, or parasites that have devastating health impacts or even death, especially among children. People live their lives with parasites and disease and often do not even realize they are sick. It is difficult for an individual or even a society to be productive under such conditions. What is the water crisis all about? People need water to live, but unsafe water kills every 15 seconds.

Q: What is the efficacy of the BioSand Water Filter?
A: : A comparison of various purification means and results can be found here: http://hydraid.org/pdf/scientific-study-synopsis-march-2009.pdf http://hydraid.org/pdf/SustainedUse_Sobseyetal_POUsustainability_Published_2008.pdf http://hydraid.org/pdf/BSF_HaitiStudy_Dukeetal_RuralRemoteHealth_2006.pdfBottom line, bio sand filters are found to be effective, convenient and sustainable in eliminating or reducing disease causing bacteria, parasites, viruses, and solids from water. While highly effective by itself, it becomes extremely effective if the filtered water is treated with one drop of chlorine per liter. Amway as part of the Safe Water Team is supplying chorine. The Hydraid BioSand Water Filters are not effective against dissolved pesticides or other dissolved chemicals or in purifying seawater.

Q: Why is the Safe Water Team best equipped to address the problem NOW?
A: While this huge problem requires a variety of long-term solutions including permanent wells and effective latrines, The Hydraid BioSand Water Filter is available, effective, and distribution centers are in place in critical areas including the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Shipment to Haiti is being done in cooperation with the US Navy’s Operation Handclasp so that filters sent to Haiti do not need to go through the docks and customs. The NGO, Pure Water for the World, who has been in Haiti many years distributes the filters and trains the recipients. So, the Safe Water Team with its sponsors, see http://safewaterteam.org , are producing the Hydraid BioSand Water Filters inexpensively and the logistics chain is in place to pack, ship, deliver, train, and sustain the filters NOW.

Q: How do we give and make sure our money gets to the right place and receives matching funds?
A: We’ve set up two ways to donate. You can donate directly to Safewaterteam.org a 501c3 organization online at http://safewaterteam.org or by mailing to Safe Water Team, PO Box 287, Lowell, MI 49331, making sure that “ACDLSM Haiti Water,” or “Lay Speaker Haiti Water” in the online instructions or on the memo line of the check. You organization can also consolidate donations and forward a single check.For those who would rather donate to a United Methodist Organization and know that the donations will be properly transmitted, we have set up an account through the Missouri Conference Office of Creative Ministry. You can donate online at http://www.umocm.com/Donate/donate.html Be sure to include “ACDLSM Haiti Water” or “Lay Speaker Haiti Water” in the “instructions to seller.” Checks can be mailed to Office of Creative Ministries, 3009 David Drive Columbia, MO 65202. Again, include “ACDLSM Haiti Water” or “Lay Speaker Haiti Water” on the memo line.

Q: How do I find out more?
A: Go to http://hydraid.org/resources/index.htm and read some of the documentation. A great place to start may be the handbook, http://hydraid.org/pdf/HydrAidHandbook_English.pdf and Qs and As, http://hydraid.org/pdf/faq.pdf And for more background on the program, see http://tiny.cc/rick_haiti_water

Fundraising Ideas--Safe Water for Haiti

2011-03-14T18:33:00.007-05:00

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives… ”

Few things provide release to the captives like the availability of clean, safe water. The leadership of the Association of Conference Directors of Lay Speaking Ministries (ACDLSM) has signed a Letter of Intent that can obtain matching funds for all donations made by July 1, 2011 up to $50,000. The total would provide clean, safe water for up to 10,000 people for the next 10 years. We can all become part of the solution to a crisis in Haiti and beyond. Set a conference goal of $3,000 now. Have every district set a goal of $1,000. Below are some great fundraising ideas. Select three or more that you can start on right away.

As lay speakers we are called to equip United Methodist for all facets of lay ministry. For this time, the leadership of your Association (ACDLSM) is called to equip the lay speakers and the church to a ministry of Safe Water for Haiti and Haitians. During the past six months, the cholera epidemic as infected over 120,000 and hospitalized 70,000. Fortunately deaths have been under 1,500. But within a short time, the impact of waterborne diseases will exceed the human suffering of the earthquake itself. And as long as people use dirty water, cholera and other debilitating waterborne diseases will not go away. These are Christ’s people. These are the poorest of the poor in the western hemisphere. A million of them remain in tents. The Spirit of the Lord is upon us. We are called.

And we are calling and equipping you to respond. At the ACDLSM Convocation this year, three of our learning sessions focused on lay speakers and lay speaker training sessions to be in mission. We also invited a representative of Safe Water Team who introduced us to an elegant, affordable, available solution. (Click here for details, use it to prepare yourselves). It is the Hydraid Bio Sand Water Filter. It has no moving parts, requires no power, is transportable and costs less than $100.00 shipped and installed. It is highly effective and sustainable for 10 years or more.

A Letter of Intent (LOI) has been signed that has as a goal ACDLSM raising $50,000 and the Safe Water Team providing matching funds by July 1, 2011. That’s $100,000. That’s huge, but easily doable. It’s called the power of connection. If 40 of the 58 contiguous conferences participate, that is $1200 per conference, assuming 8 districts, 800 churches and 800 lay speakers a conference (all round numbers), that’s $150 a district or $1.50 a church or $1.50 a lay speaker. That is the power of connection! (We can only fail by leaving it to the other girl or guy.)

Here are some ideas and easy goals for raising funds in your conference or district or church or lay speaking classes. Remember we are equipping our lay speakers to call the churches to ministry. The goals listed are easily achievable. Our experience is that people want to give. The first presentation was to a congregation of 100 that gave a spontaneous (they did not even know donations were going to be requested) of over $4000. A congregation of 28 donated $1400. A hastily prepared church auction netted $6200. Lay Speakers simply need to be equipped with information and some good fundraising ideas.

1. Have a special offering at the Annual Conference. $15,000. Talk to your Lay Leader about making Hydraid BioSand Water Filters a part of the laity presentation coordinate a special offering with your director of connectional ministries. At your booth at the Annual Conference make water a part of it so members are educated before the offering. Act now, Annual Conference planning is underway.
2. Teach the LS Lead Missions Course to 15 students (email rmatson573@aol.com if you do not have the course DVD). Our experience is that lay speakers will not be able to wait to talk to their congregations and will receive substantial spontaneous donations. $15,000
3. Find a Conference Champion. Ministry does not happen nor persist without a champion. Anyone who has been to Haiti or on a VIM trip will be an advocate. Buy them a Hydraid BioSand Water Filter Demonstrator (deb.walsh@cascadeng.com or 616-254-4114) and turn them loose. $10,000
4. Find District Champions. $10,000. (Note, a powerpoint presentation you can build on is available.
5. Speak at Rotary Clubs. Many of Lay Speakers are Rotarians. Rotary International is passionate about water and many of these safe water programs were founded and supported by Rotary organizations. A five minute talk at a Rotary Club in December raised $4000. And an Interact Club in California (High Schoolers) raised $50,000 in 2010. Make it known that there are matching funds and it’s a no-brainer. Two Rotary Club presentations should easily net $5000.
6. Make the ministry of Safe Water part of every Lay Speaking Ministries class in your conference this spring. As an extra task, ask each participant to make a presentation (tell the story, that’s what we do best) to their congregations or a small group within their church to raise awareness of the safe water crisis. Solicit fund raising ideas from each group. Act. Assuming 15 students per class, you do the math; it could be great.
7. Each lay speaker (say 300 from a conference) buy one-tenth of a $34 Hydraid Bio Sand Filter. $1,000.
8. Have lay speakers at each church (say 100 churches in your conference) ask for a second offering for Haiti Safe Water. $1,000.
9. Encourage the UMW in each of 100 congregations to do an area study on Haiti, and to raise congregational awareness. $1000 or more.
10. Have Lay Speakers talk to the public school teachers in their congregations about speaking about the problems of Children in Haiti. Invest in a Hydraid Demonstrator ($58 shipped) and use it as a piggy bank for two weeks in a school. Each school will raise $250.
11. Lay Speakers talk to Scouting Organizations sponsored by your churches about doing a fund raiser in the community malls to raise awareness and collect donations. $500.

We recommend that every conference should set a goal of $3,000 to assure levels of giving will capture every dollar of matching funds. Be intentional. Remember, the deadline is July 1, 2011. Let the oppressed go free!

Safe Water--Saving Lives Now

2011-03-06T18:03:00.013-06:00

"Lord, when did we see you thirsty and give you something to drink?" Matthew 25:37

If you could provide safe water to a family of five or more for the next 10 years; safe water that was free of parasites and stopped cholera and other killers and that cost only $100, procured, shipped, installed, with the family trained, would you? That's $100, $10 a year to provide safe water to a family in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, or Ghana.

Unsafe water and poor sanitation are at crisis levels. A child under five dies every 15 seconds because of them. It is a crisis begging a sustainable solution. Most efforts leave us frustrated and feeling helpless. But there is an elegant solution. I first learned of it in "Rotarian Magazine" a year ago. (See August 2009 page 30, and November 2009 page 61, issues). The solution is the Hydraid Biosand Filter. A simple device with no moving parts, requiring no power, no maintenance, and only minimal training. It costs $34.00, $100.00 installed in Haiti or one of the other countries above. How can that be? Because God made it that way, and he has led people of God to make it happen.

The Hydraid Biosand Filter uses sand, the system that has cleansed water flowing into our aquifers for eons and a biological layer that naturally forms within few days that attacks the bad pathogens which cause devastating illnesses and even death. (See how it works.) It is a wonder!

Educate yourselves with the links above. It is a life-saver. The Safe Water Team (safewaterteam.org) is a 501 c3 organization dedicated to distributing the technology to those in need. They are doing tremendous work. The government of Honduras just two weeks ago signed a contract for 40,000 of them to be distributed over the next five years. The solution is there, the transportation is there, the receiving system is there (through the US Navy in Haiti to avoid Customs problems), and the distribution systems are in place (an NGO, Pure Water for the world in Haiti, and Good Samaritan Hospital in the Dominican Republic). The Dominican Republic distribution system supports Haitian field hands who are the poorest of the poor in the Western Hemisphere.

Here's what Lay Speakers in the United Methodist Church are doing: At our annual convocation, we drafted a Letter of Intent to raise $50,000 by July 1st. Safe Water Team pledges to match our donations dollar for dollar up to $50,000! Wow! And because we are a connected church of 50 conferences, and average of 8 districts per conference, 80 churches and 80 lay speakers per district (all round numbers), it is no-brainer. It's a $1000 per conference, $1.60 per church or lay speaker. Most importantly, it is a life-saver!

Lay Speakers, brainstorm how you can make missions part of your training. Find a champion, a person with a passion for people, in your conference or in your district. Talk to your churches. The lay speaker in this video was giving a report on his VIM trip to Haiti. Unannounced, he introduced the Hydraid Biosand Filter and spontaneously raised over $4000 from a congregation of 100 in attendance. Last week a church raised $6200 in a spur of the moment auction just for Hydraid filters for Haiti.

Here's the key to getting our matching funds: Donate through safewaterteam.org. ALWAYS make sure that "ACDLSM" or "Lay Speaker" in is the memo section or if through paypal, in the instructions to the seller. Send checks to Safe Water Team, PO Box 287, Lowell, MI 49331, again with "ACDLSM" or "Lay Speaker" on the memo line of your check. If you prefer to donate through a United Methodist organization, we've set up an alternate at Office of Creative Ministries, Missouri Conference (Click Here) or mail checks to Office of Creative Ministries, 3009 David Drive, Columbia, MO 65202. The same memo instructions apply.

Now, consider if one church in each Conference had a fund raiser. How about a church in each district? Or if each lay speaking ministries class this spring took Safe Water on as a mission project? How about if each lay speaker just bought a $34 Hydraid Biosand Filter? What if it was a project for Change the World Sunday? The possibilities for saving lives are endless. What are your ideas?

Links to SOLM mp3 Audio Files! (See Right Panel)

2010-10-01T13:05:00.003-05:00

Missouri Conference School of Lay Ministry, "Transforming Congregations through Spiritual Formation in the Wesleyan Tradition," led by Rev. Tom Albin, Dean of the Upper Room was a (let's use the work again) a transforming experience. Awesome really. We were fortunate enough to video the event and have a four DVD set available for $25.00. Drop me a line at rmatson573@aol.com.

What a great way for you and your church leadership groups to review, renew and launch transforming ministries for your congregations! Some just don't have time to spend eight hours in from of the TV, but would have time in their cars or on the jogging paths or sidewalks while walking their canine friends.

You're in luck! The sessions are now available for download and use on your iPod or mp3 player or you may burn a CD to use in your car. Take a look in the right hand panel of this blog. The files are available for immediate download. They are large files so be patient. If you are on dialup, or just need a more convenient way, drop me a note and I'll send you a CD.

Audio and Video are different experiences. You'll learn something different in each format. If you have formed a team at your church, here's my recommendation: Then during the week, listen to the audio session. Send emails to each other with the ideas that God has placed on your mind.

And may you be blessed!

A Living Memorial

2010-06-07T16:57:00.003-05:00

(1 Samuel 7:7-12)

Below is a the Memorial Sunday sermon at Smith Chapel, how we can become an Ebenezer, a living memorial to God's help. After listening to Bishop Schnase describe the Wesleyan approach to salvation and sanctification through Grace, I thought it important for us to hear my take on friend Dorothy's story, part of the sermon below. The hymn of preparation was "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and the Scripture reading was 1 Samuel 7:7-12.

Introduction

Ebenezer, in our song and our Scripture, “stone of help,” but also stone of remembrance for it helped them remember. Last Tuesday, we visited our stone of remembrance, the memorial stone of our son Jeff. Jeff would have been 48 on June 30^th, one month from today. August 13^th will be 30 years, but he will always be 18 to me. Jeff was Rosemary’s best friend. He was Curt’s constant companion. He was our son. In his short life, he had experienced more than most. He had a job that he loved, he had a girl that he loved, and who loved him in return. He had friends that he loved who cared about him. He was passionate about life. He loved life and it loved him in return. How do we memorialize a life so precious to us? How do you live in response to the love that he had given us? A stone of remembrance yes, but our best response is a life of remembrance, a life lived as a memorial to life of love that he lived. Our lives as a stone of remembrance.

Sometimes when tragedy happens, we have trouble even getting on with life, let alone living our lives. We have the question in our hearts continually, the question that has plagued humankind since the beginning, the question that in so many cases drives people away from the Christian faith. The question of course is “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Body

You’ve all asked that question. Certainly Ilene has asked the question. Certainly Cecil has asked the question. When we think of Julie, I think we all ask the question. My hunch is that every single one of you have asked. Many times with unsatisfactory answers, many unsatisfactory answers from good, well-intentioned people. They say, “It was all part of God’s plan.” Or “God takes the very best for his own.” Or “God loved him the most.” Well, then, I don’t want God to love him. In fact, I don’t want a God that had it in his plan to snatch Jeff from us. How can we have faith in such a God? How can we raise a stone, a memorial to such a God?

It’s the kind of thing you might have heard from your friends. It’s the kind of thing you might hear from the more vocal of the Christian community today. “God has a plan. It was all part of God’s plan.” It’s the kind of thing that drives many away from the faith. You might have heard it, but you won’t hear it here. It is not Methodist. It is not Wesleyan. It’s not part of our DNA.

John Wesley had a running battle with friends of his who followed the French theologian, John Calvin, who believed that all things were predestined by God. Even those who are to be saved and those who are not to be saved are predestined by God. That was unacceptable to Wesley who believed in a God of grace. A God whose grace was available to all, not just some. God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s grace is available to all. O, we have the free-will to refuse it, we can choose, but God’s grace is available to every one of us.
How does this address the question of “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The world is fallen, evil exists, bad things happen because of the choices we have made from the beginning. Choices made by both people and spiritual forces. Paul called them “powers and principalities”; they make choices too. Choices result in accidents. Choices sometimes result in evil. Bad things happen to good people not because God chooses them, but because people do. Choice gives us the freedom to love, to experience joy. It also gives us the freedom to do harm.

Or because that’s the way a fallen world is. We choose to go certain places. We choose to go at certain times. We live in certain places. The hurricanes that provide water for thousands of square miles, provide devastation at the seashore. The same thunderstorms that water the plains spawn tornados. The wild beasts that provide food also are a threat to life and limb. We live in a fallen world, but someday we know that the lion will lie down with the lamb. That is yet to come. For now, bad things do happen, but we know that God is there.

The important thing for John Wesley was the understanding that God’s grace was available, not just available, but working in each and every one of us even before we know it. Wesley was not alone in his understanding, but was following in the footsteps of a Dutch theologian, Jacob Arminius, who had set forth certain principles in opposition to John Calvin. Wesley embraced Arminism, as it came to be known, and our own denomination as well as many other Wesleyan denominations, such as the Church of the Nazarene, the Salvation Army, Assemblies of God; and many others like the Disciples of Christ have followed and others, most all flowing from Wesley’s teachings.

And how important is this understanding? It makes understand that God’s love is for all, not just for some. We don’t have a God who picks and chooses. We have a God who loves all of his children and wants all to believe in him and love him in return. By the way, that should influence the way we view others.

It makes us understand that we are immersed in God’s grace that is continually nudging us, but that we have apart to play, we have to accept the nudging of God’s grace. Understand there is nothing we can do by ourselves to save us. It is grace. But what we must do is make the choice to accept it.

It makes understand the power of prayer. What good would prayer be if all things were predestined, even the prayers we say tonight? We choose to pray because we know we have a God who loves us, and God who hears our prayers. Not that all are answered to our satisfaction. Evil forces exist in this world that resist grace and bad things can happen.

But it makes us understand that nothing can happen that cannot bring God glory, even the most tragic of circumstances. Tragedy happened in Jesus’ life. His friend Lazarus died. Jesus used it to bring glory to God. Bad things happen in our lives. If we will allow God, he will take those tragedies and bring glory out of those too. I praise God today because he has been at work in my life.

Yes, I think the Wesleyan understanding of God’s grace, God’s love, makes our lives much more important because we have choices to make. What we do with our lives matters. It matters to us. It matters to others. We can choose to make our lives a memorial. We can choose to make our lives a difference. And I would submit that we make a difference best when we follow the teachings of Jesus.

We are the body of Christ. Jesus is our head. We are to have the mind of Christ. Paul called Jesus the pioneer and perfector, perfector, of our faith. It is Jesus to whom we look. It is Jesus who we follow. It is Jesus in whom we believe. It is in following Jesus that we build our lives into a memorial for Him and for those we love. Our lives become an Ebenezer when we choose to follow Jesus.

Making choices is not always an easy thing. We are immersed in a world of bad options. It’s easy to make bad choices when we are surrounded by bad options. Fortunately, Wesley had some things to say about that too. He taught us too how we are to live our lives in following Jesus, how we can best make choices. We talked of that last year when we did our sermon series on Wesley’s Three Simple Rules.

First, do no harm. Recall that we said that this was the first rule because in so many cases it is so difficult to undo harm. We can be forgiven, but the consequences of harm remain.

Then, do good. Do all the good you can, to all the people you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, for as long as ever you can.

Finally, stay in love with God. We do this by immersing ourselves in grace and saying yes to God’s nudgings. We immerse ourselves in grace by doing all those things associated with the devotional life: We pray, we read and hear Scripture, we study, we partake in Holy Communion, we fast, we gather in community to enter into holy conversation. In so doing, we hear the love of God proclaimed and we respond in love.

This week I read a facebook note from my friend Dorothy in Springfield. She had attended a Joyce Meyer event this past weekend where Joyce had talked a lot about, “what you think, you become.” She was challenged to spend some time each day thinking about what she was thinking about. It struck a chord with her.

On Tuesday morning, her Bible opened to the following verse, one of my favorites: Philippians 4:8 "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." NIV

Wow! Dorothy thought about in the shower, then on the drive to work. Then she thought about what she thought about. When the day was done, she wrote this:

What goes into my head, thoughts, judgments, etc., can be pretty scary sometimes… Man, are my eyes wide open now. Here are a few examples that will bring me to a place that is noble and just and lovely and admirable:

1. I will not shade any of my thoughts with deceit or lies.
2. I will think about others with respect and honor.
3. I determine to think on what is virtuous and decent.
4. I will keep my thoughts focused on good things.
5. I will look for the inner beauty in the people I meet - after all God created them.
6. I will focus on the best qualities of people I know.
7. I will avoid sloppy attitudes.
8. I will recall those things that cause my heart to praise God!

She concludes: These are the biblical teachings that will better shape my day to help me better shape the world where I am.

Dorothy is becoming a memorial, a stone that will help others remember who and whose they are. How does this come about? It is grace. God’s grace. We can do nothing apart from God. But there came a time from God’s nudgings (Wesley called it prevenient grace—grace before we know it, grace before it’s convenient) there was a time Dorothy responded and said yes to God. God forgave her of her sins and brought her into a relationship with Him. She became a Christian. She was justified, she was made right. She was brought into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We call this justifying grace. You see grace is God’s love continuously poured out for us. God continued to pour out his love, to continue to work in Dorothy’s life. He nudged to go to the Joyce Meyer seminar. She said yes. Through the voice of Joyce Meyer He placed an idea before her. She said yes. On Tuesday morning he nudged her to read her Bible. She was again immersed in grace. She said yes. He placed Paul’s letter to the Philippians before her. It shaped her thoughts to which she said yes.

How do our lives become a memorial? Wesley believed that God does not leave us alone. Through our immersion in grace, our immersion in God’s love, from our saying yes, day after day, God moves us from where we are towards where he wants us to be. Wesley called this sanctification. Moving on to Christian maturity with God’s help. Yes, I would say on to becoming an Ebenezer, a monument a stone to God’s help.

Stones are a big deal in the Bible. (Note: Small stones are passed out to each in the congregation.) A search will reveal almost 400 occurrences, depending on the translation you might be using. Some notable remembrances of stones in the Bible:

Jacob used a stone as a pillow the night he dreamed of Jacob’s ladder and angels ascending and descending from heaven. In the morning he set it upright as a pillar, pouring oil on the top of it and saying, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it…. How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.”

Stones. The Ten Commandments were given on two tablets of stone.

Joshua had the Israelites take 12 stones out of the Jordon River after they had crossed over and set them up as a monument to God so that anyone who asked in times to come they would know they were a monument to God’s mighty acts so that they might fear the Lord forever.

There was the Ebenezer stone, the stone of help.

There was the stone Jesus commanded be removed from Lazarus’ tomb, and the stone that was rolled away on Easter morning.

Then, there was Christ, the cornerstone.

Finally, we are to become stone of remembrance, an Ebenezer, a monument to God’s help for those around us to see.

One more thing, we become a memorial, a stone of remembrance, when we live a life of gratitude.

As we drove away from the cemetery, from Jeff’s grave last Monday, I asked Rosemary a question I’d heard another time. “If you knew, if you knew the pain, the suffering, the anguish that you’d have gone through because of the loss of Jeff, because of the bad things that had happened to this good child. If you knew, would you have had children?”

Her response was the one that I know you know: “I’m grateful for the time I had with him. I wouldn’t trade a moment, not a second of that time.

The time we have with one another is precious. A precious stone, more precious than gold. You see that precious stone is hope. And that too is grace, an undeserved gift of love from God. The hope that we will join again with those who have gone before, join with them in the presence of Jesus Christ who is our stone of hope.

Our hope is in Jesus Christ, the answer to our deepest longings, and our most difficult questions. When we ask, “Why?” We need not know the reason. Reasons may never be satisfactory to us. What we need is our stone of hope. We need gift of Jesus Christ.

With a gift like that, how can we not live our life as a stone of remembrance, as a memorial to all that God has given us.

So may you all be stones of remembrance, carrying in your hands the precious stone of hope to the glory of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is our help and we are his stones of remembrance, his Ebenezers in a world that desperately needs his help. Become a stone for all to see, and as Dorothy said, to shape the world around you. Amen.

Strategy #4 "Create Momentum"

2010-06-05T04:11:00.006-05:00

Strategy #4 Create Momentum

Or how to break through resistance and lead change!

Leaders motivate. Managers channel that motivation. In the case of “Creating Momentum” both are clearly needed. Channeled activity without motive is doing the same old thing. Motivation without direction is simply chaos. Momentum mathematically is a “vector,” ie it has a direction as a component. In other words, it is channeled energy. So the leader’s task is to achieve channeled energy that moves the congregation toward his or her vision.

So how does a pastor create momentum? What does he or she focus on? Buckingham and Coffman, First Break all the Rules (pg 57) say emphasize your strengths. Jim Collins, Good to Great, says select something you can do world class, that you are passionate about, that makes the biggest difference (he says “economic denominator”; I say that produces the most "extravagant generosity" or the most "radical" participation by your congregation.)

What can you do world class, better than anyone else? Everyone has something. Our little church does Vacation Bible School (VBS) world class. We have an average attendance of 19 that includes two children. Yet we had 18 kids in VBS last year with a teenage dancer leading awesome music, in a multipurpose barn a half mile from the church, with a neighbor mom, home schooler, as a wonderful Bible teacher. To be world class, we didn’t just depend on our own resources, we used the community. And we had fun! Three years ago it rained. One of the mothers rounded up 10 plastic water bottles and tennis balls, and we did VBS bowling down the church aisle. The first one to 153 (the number of fish caught in John 24) won. And we had fun. (Two years later, Cokebury used the same game as one of its recreation programs.) Did I say 18 kids?

The intersection of what you are passionate about, what you can do world class, and what radically maximizes participation should be the fruitful ministries that are your focus. Then Collins says the best achieve success over and over again creating an accumulation of visible results that energize their companies (congregations). Momentum builds and bursts through resistance to change!

Success is best visible in PRAY-PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT cycles. Rick Warren says, “[Practices] must be put into a sequential process [to] be acted on every day.” Bishop Schnase says, “Exemplary and repeated practices.. are the means congregations use to fulfill their missions with excellence and fruitfulness [changing lives in Jesus Christ].”

Create momentum by doing what you are passionate about, what you do best, what brings extravagance and radical participation and do it in an exemplary and repeated manner… Changing lives in Jesus Christ!

Bob’s Farrism: “Successful churches do what unsuccessful churches refuse to do.”

Strategy #3 Begin With the Basics

2010-05-28T15:47:00.002-05:00

Strategy #3 “Begin with the Basics.”

“May a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!”

Bob suggests “Start with great worship, great music, great children’s programs, do the Five Practices well.” That would be quite a report card. Even Adam Hamilton says Church of the Resurrection gets a “B” in worship. (That’s enough for the rest of us to revise our report cards.) So where in the world do we begin? I would suggest with what you do well and make it better.

Edward Deming is the Father of total quality management that revolutionized the Japanese automobile industry. The heart of it is the simple “Deming Cycle”: Plan, Do, Check, Act (and I would suggest immersed in prayer). Again, Adam Hamilton reports that the worship team meets every Monday to review how the worship weekend went and how they can do better. Not only that, Rev. Hamilton has an associate monitor his Saturday night sermon to make recommended changes for the Sunday services. Would we be so bold? Pray, then Plan, Do, Check Act, and Pray. By the way, without a team accountable to make what the activities better, your church will not be intentional or successful in your effort. The best team is the team of doers. James was right, “Be doers…, not merely hearers.” Then the gospel according to Deming says, “Then do it better, one step at a time. Plan, do, check, act.”

Small churches believe they are strapped from doing great things by limited resources. God uses others; we should too. There are talented people in our communities who are just waiting for our invitation to make a joyful noise or to lead Vacation Bible School (VBS). Want to have a great VBS? Find a teenager in your neighborhood who loves to dance and sing. Give her the Cokesbury CD and Music Director’s book a month in advance and watch your VBS blossom. Young girls will admire her, and well, boys will be boys.

Children’s programs, VBS, Sunday School, Youth Programs need to be fun. Kids learn and are attracted to the faith in fun environments. Jesus called himself a “bibber.” Can you imagine what He might have been like as a child? Make fun foundational and you will have the beginnings of a great children’s program.

Then Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice (that’s five). And “Make a joyful noise.”

Strategy #2 "Understand Your Present Realities"

2010-05-18T06:53:00.003-05:00

Strategy #2 “Understand Your Present Realities”

The house closest to our 175 year old country church is a fairly new modular home where a single dad, his child and girl friend reside. He is one of the 80 plus percent of the people in our neck of the woods for whom church attendance is not important. Chuck does not look like our church. The neighborhood has changed. Rather than a farm community, it more closely resembles suburbia with residents traveling to a half dozen communities for their labors instead of making their living off the farm. There are few ties to the land. So not only Chuck, but most of our neighborhood does not look like the church.

Some of our church members live on 100 year old farms. Many, many of the neighbors are new and younger and living on smaller parcels of land. Because of that, the church doesn’t know their neighbors. The church members were high school classmates of 1964 and their parents. The neighbors don’t do 4H or woman’s groups with the church members. They don’t go to the sale together, because the neighbors don’t go. Most are not sure who’s behind the new mailboxes.

(By the way, if asked, most of the members would say there’s nobody around here anymore (that looks like them). Yet, a missioninsite listing within a six mile radius returned 800 mailbox addresses!)

In the book Stones into Schools, the story of Greg Mortenson planting girl’s schools in Afghanistan, he tells of visiting a US Army fire base where the operations center tracked not intelligence on the enemy but the culture of villages, the clans, the households, everything imaginable about the community the battalion was trying to secure. Mortenson gave them high marks for their efforts to know those they were sent to serve. What if we were to strive to know as much about the communities in which we live?

Just this week, I had an Edward Jones broker knock on my door, telling me (I’m sure his tongue was in his cheek), “I’m not here to sell anything. I’m just trying to get to know the neighborhood.”

It’s easier if we have a reason to talk to people. We need to continually make reasons for invitation, reasons to knock on doors, reasons to start conversations, reasons to ask neighbors to participate with us. Adam Hamilton says that today the reason may more likely be a means of service, in a food pantry, at a Habitat work site or other work project. Some rural churches piggy back with bigger churches to offer Angel Food Ministries to their neighborhood. Servant evangelism does work. Whatever it is, we need to be searching for reason for invitation. Rick Warren calls them “bridge events” into the neighborhood. How many, how often? As many as the resources of your congregation will allow: three, five, seven times a year.

And teach your congregations they don’t have to be a theologian, they don’t have to be an evangelist. All they have to do is be able to say is “I go to church. Church is important to me. Church makes a difference in my life. Won’t you join me this Sunday.” Then make sure you give them something to take away.” (Rev. Ross Reinhiller, who grew his church from 175 to 350 attendees in 2 years in a town of 3500 people.)

Get your thinking caps on. What is your church’s reality? What do you need to do to bridge to the new reality? How do you become missional? What do you need to change to give them something to take away, something important to them?

PS. Bob’s Farrism is “Connecting to context is everything.”

Remembering Emma on Mother's Day

2010-05-14T08:06:00.013-05:00

Mother’s Legacy
(2 Timothy 1:5)

A. Introduction

There always seem to be the need for disclaimers for Mother’s Day sermons. Because

-Some are. Some are not.
-Some were. Some were not.
-Some will. Some will not.
-Some are chosen. Some chose not.
-Some are good, have experienced good mothers. Some have not.

So with every Mother’s Day sermon, there seems to be a need for a disclaimer.

For all the smiles mother or motherhood might bring, there may be tears.

For all the joys that mother or motherhood may remind us of, there may be sorrow.

3. I like smiles. So here goes.

A mother of three notorious kids was asked if she had to do all over again, would she have kids? She answered, “Sure, but just not the same three.”

An overzealous little boy describing excitedly all the wonderful thing he was going to get for his mother for Mother’s Day may her life easier, said, “I’m going to get her electric can opener; I’m going to get her an electric stove; I’m going to get her an electric chair.”

Then there were the three highly successful sons would tried to outdo one another with gifts for their elderly mother. Getting together, the first said, “I built a big house for our mother.”

The second said, “Well, I sent mother a Mercedes.”

The third said, “I’ve got you both beat. You know how Mom enjoys the Bible and she can’t see very well any more. Well, I sent her a parrot that can recite the entire Bible. It took 20 monks in a monastery 12 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute 100,000 a year to the monastery for the next 10 years, but it was worth it. All she has to do is name a chapter and verse and the parrot will recite it.”

Soon after Mother’s Day, Mom mailed her letters of thanks. She wrote the first son, “Michael, the house you built is too large. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house.”

To the second son, she wrote, “Marvin, I’m nearly blind so I can’t drive. I stay home all day, so I really don’t use the Mercedes.”

And to the third son she wrote. “Dearest Melvin, you were the only son to have the sense to know what your mother really likes. The chicken was delicious.”

Finally, there were Six-year-old Johnny and his four-year-old sister who Suzy presented their mom with a Mother’s Day present; a small, spindly house plant. While it wasn’t the finest looking specimen, they had bought it with their own money and Mom was thrilled. She hugged and kissed her children and told them she loved them for thinking of her.

Johnny said, "There was some other flowers we wanted to buy for you, Mom, but we didn’t have enough money." "Yeah," said sister Suzy, "they had a real nice bunch of flowers at the shop that we were going to buy."

"But I love this plant," said the happy mother. "I know, Mom," said Johnny, "but these flowers would have been perfect for you. They were in a wreath and they had a ribbon that said ’REST IN PEACE’ on it AND YOU’RE ALWAYS ASKING FOR A LITTLE PEACE SO YOU CAN REST.”

B. Body

1. Mothers don’t always have it so good. I have to say that not even the mothers of the Bible (May they rest in peace) did not have it so good.

-Eve lost her sons.

-Sarah waited in anguish while Abraham took Isaac to the mountain and bound him

-Hagar was fearful that she would have to watch her son, Ishmael, die in the desert sun.

-Rebekah lost her two sons. When she conspired to steal the blessing from Esau she lost his affection and lost her son Jacob who had to flee for his life.

-Rachel, the mother of Joseph, died giving birth to Benjamin and never saw the greatness of her son.

-Moses’ mother gave him up to Pharaoh’s household.

-Samson’s mother had to be mortified by the things he did.

-Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, lost her husband and two sons.

-Hannah dedicated her child Samuel to the Lord.

-And then there was Mary the mother of Jesus.

2. But there were joys:

-Elizabeth, like Sarah and Hannah, gave birth in her old age. There was joy in the family. I think grandmothers can appreciate that.
-Bathsheba saw her son Solomon become King.
-Mary was blessed with a remarkable child, we call him Jesus.

The bible has good things to say about women. Women get the last word in the Book of Proverbs: (Please Read Proverbs 31:10-31)

When a remarkable woman, a remarkable mother is mentioned we all have someone we know come to mind, someone we would tell about. For me, it might be Rosemary (but that’s too close to home). It could be my next door neighbor, Lorraine, who prayed 40 years for her son and her prayers answered at the close of her life. But the woman I would like to tell you about is my grandmother Emma Matson.

Emma was born in 1885 in Stoughton, WI. Her dad rose to Superintendent of Stoughton Wagon Company. Stoughton trailers are still made today. Her mother died when she was six and her dad remarried, no necessarily a good thing for Emma and her brother Oscar.

Emma graduated from Whitewater Normal College, now a branch of the University of Wisconsin with a life-time teaching certificate.

She and my Grandpa Hakon were married on Aug 30, 1906. Their first child was born 10 months later. Not able to find good land at an affordable price in Wisconsin, the young couple sought their future in South Dakota just two years later. Rather than homesteading, Hakon found an existing farm they called “Hilltop” just outside of Burke, South Dakota.

In 1914, Hakon started a farm implement business in Burke and they moved to town.

Eventually they moved into this small two-bedroom, one bath home. From front to back on the left side, it had two bedrooms with a bath in the middle. On the right it had a living room, dining room and kitchen.

I saw of the dining room this week at my cousin Charlie’s. Spacious, a dining set that seated eight that I could see. The dining area in those days was the center of the household. Hospitality was important.

I remember the kitchen when we returned to Burke following WWII. It had a wood cooking stove. My Uncle Keith told me she cooked everything from scratch. There was no store-bought bread that came into the house. I remember too wringing the necks of chickens in the backyard and cleaning them. Grandma brought out the boiling water to have them plucked, but I think she did most of the plucking. I wasn’t very good at it. And there was always a big garden to the side of the house that played a major role at the table.

I remember the center heating grate between the living room and dining room. The furnace was coal fired and for most of her time did not have a stoker. It had to be started each and every morning.

She raised five children in that two bedroom house, having the last one, my Uncle Keith, when she was 43 with her oldest, Uncle Carroll, off to college.

As a young mother, she had taught school at a one room country school, Rembrandt School, near Hilltop.. Later she would teach and substitute teach in High School. Carroll had reported that Grandma Emma had taught him Latin. She served on the school board the final 16 years of her life. When she passed away, the senior class dedicated their annual to her.

She and Pop her founding members of the Burke Methodist Episcopal Church, formed in 1917. It was built with a large fellowship area and kitchen. Just as the dining area was the center of the house, the chuch was to be the center of the community. She was active in every facet of the church. She played piano for the Sunday School, taught Sunday School, sang in the choir, was always a part of the Woman, and Women’s circles, part of the Women’s Temperance League.

And she taught me. In my earlier grades, I stayed every Saturday night at their house. After the 10:00 news (Whitey Larson, WNAX, Yankton with studios also in Sioux City), she opened the Bible read to me and to Hakon, and we prayed. We were up in time of course to get me off to Sunday School and to church. Little towns are neat, we were a block and a half from the church, and Grandpa’s business was only two blocks away.

Grandma Emma had good years and bad. Hakon, at least, had influenza in 1918. I know because he lost most of his hair. Surely Emma was nurse at that time.

Let’s see, my Dad was three at that time. My Uncle Carroll had been born in 1907. They had moved to South Dakota when he was one year old. Picture that trip. That may be why my Dad didn’t come along until 1915. Aunt Ruth was born in 1918, in the midst of the flu epidemic. My Uncle Dean in 1921.

The 20s were prosperous as Pop was recognized in 1928 as having the most sales in South Dakota by McCormick-Deering. So prosperous that Uncle Keith came along that same year in 1928 when she was 43.

And then the 30s. She persevered while Pop strived to keep the business going while two kids went off to college. The family marvels and still wonders how they were able to pull it off.

In the 40s she saw two of her sons go off to war, one of them in the thick of things. Her youngest son, Uncle Keith, enrolled in the Naval Academy, but she unfortunately never lived to see him graduate.

Emma had suffered from goiter problems her entire life, giving her weight problems, then suffered from diabetes in her later years. She died January 31, 1950, a year before her second grandchild, Michael was born. You remember Michael. He’s the anesthesiologist at Shriner’s hospital in Sacramento.

She never saw Mike. However, I remember her encouraging Uncle Dean to meet the new nurse that had come to town who would eventually be my Aunt Lovella, my favorite aunt and Michael’s Mom. My Aunt Lovella, there’s another Mother’s Day story.

C. Close
Emma, Grandmother Emma, Mother Emma. Here’s her Bible. One of my treasures. I doubt that I would have served you these past six years if it were not for Grandma Emma’s faith.

Emma, you might say that she followed Hakon as the Biblical Ruth had followed Naomi, “Where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” From the comfort of a life in Wisconsin to the wild and unforgiving west. “Where you go, I will go.”

Emma went and was a witness to her faith in every circle she traveled. And that includes mine.

“A good woman, a good mother, where will you find? She is far more precious than diamonds.” Happy Mother’s Day. Amen.

Strategy #1 "It All Starts with the Pastor"

2010-05-13T14:17:00.001-05:00

The Strategy Themes discussed below were presented by Bob Farr, Director of Congregational Excellence, Missouri Conference UMC, as part of a presentation “Renovate or Die: How to Become an Outwardly Focused Church.” The following discusses Strategy #1 of 10.

Strategy #1 “It all starts with the pastor.”

The pastor is the congregation’s visionary, whether his or her own or derived from the congregation. The leader’s role, sorely needed in the church today, is to be a CHANGE agent. (Maybe we ought to respell it “chng” because it is certainly thought of as a four letter word!) The leader, the pastor, is causes change. Unfortunately, it often takes conflict and chaos to get change started and perseverance to push through the resistance.

I like Thomas Hawkins’ model for overcoming resistance. We’ve talked about it in past years at School of Lay Ministry:

D*M*P>R.

• Where “D” is Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction drives urgency and motivation that are essential to change.

• “M” stands for Model. Without a vision, without a clear picture of a new state of being, the church cannot move. Last year we talked about the “Missional Church,” an Acts 2 church steeped in the Commandment (Matthew 22), Compassion (Matthew 25), and Commission (Matthew 28) of Jesus Christ, undergirded by the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, a Congregation with a purpose of making new disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!

• “P” stands for Process. The congregation needs to see a way to get there or frustrations will remain. Here’s why the Healthy Church Initiative is so important. It is a visible process that gives hope that the church can really move to a new place. Change can happen!

Now note that the left side of the equation is a product of the three parts. As any one goes to zero, so does the whole left hand side!

• And the “R” is Resistance. The product of “D*M*P” must be greater than “R,” the resistance, or you and the pastor will never push through!

Yes, it starts with the pastor, but without a supportive laity, the vision will be lost. That’s why I think the Laity Leadership Development (LLD) program that our Conference Lay Leader, Brian Hammonds, has championed is so important. Laity need to be equipped to work side by side with our pastors in moving congregations to make new disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Ask your pastor what his or her vision for the congregation is. Be ready to help make it happen, to push through conflict, to move forward.

PS. Bob’s “Farrism” is “If you are going to lead, you are going to bleed.”

One with Christ

2010-05-01T18:09:00.003-05:00

One with Christ
(John 10:22-30)

Introduction

It is still the Easter Season on the Church calendar, but this morning the recommended Scripture takes a leap backwards, back to December, back to the Festival of the Dedication, also called the Festival of Lights, a joyous time on the Jewish calendar. It’s still celebrated today in nearly every Jewish home. You know it as Hanukkah. Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights.

A little background that everyone in the first century knew and when we know helps our understanding of some of the more difficult passages in the Bible. We’ve mentioned it in passing before.

The first century world was immersed in a Greek culture and they had been for hundreds of years beginning with the conquests of Alexander the Great in about 330 bc. After the death of Alexander, the known world was controlled by three dynasties: One based in Macedonia that controlled much of the Northern Mediterranean; another based in Egypt that controlled northern Africa, and a third based in Syria that controlled the near east, Persia and Mesopotamia. In essence the Greek culture was spread from Italy to India and from Macedonia to Egypt. And of course that included Palestine.

Israel had fought hard for a thousand years to maintain its religion and culture in the face of Egyptian Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and now Greek domination. Had they not succeeded, we would probably not be here. We might be worshiping Zeus until God came up with another plan.

In the second century bc, the Greeks had had enough. They were going to put an end to this upstart Jewish culture and religion once and for all. A very egocentric ruler Antiochus Epiphanes (Epiphanes means god manifest if that will give you an idea of his character), Antiochus Epiphanes came to power in 175 bc in Syria. It wasn’t enough that the culture was trickling into Palestine’s, Antiochus Epiphanes wanted to destroy and outlaw everything Jewish. In 170 bc Epiphanes invaded Jerusalem. Scrolls were destroyed, circumcision was outlawed. Mothers who had their babies circumcised were executed with their babies hanging around their necks for all to see. Gymnasiums and baths were built. These were to be center of culture rather than the Temple. As many as 80,000 were killed and persecutions were horrid.

But the crowning blow came in 167 bc when the Greeks entered the Temple, stripped it of gold and silver, made it a Temple to Zeus, and then on the 25^th day of the month of Chislev, essentially the month of December, they performed a desolating sacrilege (using the words of Jesus) by offering a swine, a pig on the altar of the Temple.

Now there was a Priest named Mattathias who had five sons, all heroes, the oldest named Judas Maccabeus fought back against great odds. It was an epic fight for freedom. Three and a half years from the time the Temple was violated, three years to the day that the desolating sacrilege, the offering of the swine had taken place, Judas Maccabeus had recaptured and cleansed the Temple, and re-lit the candles, the lights of the Temple, thus the Festival of Lights, and offered a sacrifice on a re-consecrated altar.

Three and a half years was a time told in the book of Daniel, and it appears in the book of the Revelation. How long will this last? When will I know? Is this persecution to last forever? The answer is a limited time, three and a half years and it is a message of hope. Suffering will not last. God will deliver us. Joy will come in the morning.

The Temple was cleansed, the lights re-lit and there was a joyous celebration, the apocryphal book, 1 Maccabees, says with songs, harps, lutes and cymbals for eight days. It was a time of great joy and Israel decided that it would be celebrated every year at this same time in perpetuity. And so it is. Suffering will never have the last word. Persecution will never last. God promises deliverance. God gives us hope. God promises joy. And we celebrate.

But during this Festival of Dedication, John tells us it was winter. I think John was telling us there was a chill in the air. There was pall over the celebration because the Jews were trying to destroy the Lord of Life. At the time of this Festival of lights, the Jews were trying to snuff out the Light of the World. The Jews. The Jews in the parlance of John were the Pharisees and others that opposed Jesus. It was they who were trying to extinguish the Light of Life.

Body

Our passage today is from John, chapter 10. In chapter 8, Jesus had said, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (8:12) But by the end of chapter 8, the Jews were trying to stone Jesus.

In chapter 9, Jesus restores sight to the man who had been blind from birth. When the Pharisees try to tell the man that Jesus is a sinner, he says, “I know not whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, but now I see.” (9:25) By restoring sight to the blind man, Jesus is giving him light. Jesus, the Light of the World. It should be a cause for celebration, but there is a chill in the air. It is winter, and Jesus walks under the cover of the Portico of Solomon to escape the cold winter rains.

In frustration, the Jews gather around him and say, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense. If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” (10:24) Jesus replies, “I have told you plainly but you do not believe.” But more importantly, he says, “The works I do in my father’s name testify to me.” (10:25) Isaiah had foretold what the Messiah would do. It had to be on the minds of the Pharisees and on the mind of Jesus: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless shall sing for joy.” (Isaiah 35:5-6) Jesus had healed the lame, given sight to the blind, loosened the tongue of the dumb, restored hearing to the deaf, he had done all of those things. The works that he had done in the father’s name were testimony to him.

Today’s reading in John chapter 10 is right in the middle of the “I am the Good Shepherd” discourse. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, contrasts himself to the thief who comes to steal the sheep, the hired hand who has no stake in the herd and runs at the sign of danger, or the wolves who come to destroy. These come to kill, or steal, or abandon. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who comes that you might have life and it abundantly (10:10). In our passage he says, “I’ve told you [that I am the Messiah], but you do not believe. The works that I do testify to me, but you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I will give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.” (v 25-30 NRSV and NASB)

Because they would not believe, the adversaries of Jesus did not belong to his sheep. We believe. We know we need to believe, but they did not. Why not? Why in face of not only his words, but his works which testified to Him? Why did they not believe?

Simply, they had the wrong world view. We sometimes use the word paradigm which is a philosophical framework on which we hang all of our understandings. I think of it as a filter, a lens by which we view the world. We often can’t see outside of that filter or outside of the field of view of that lens. Those things that are outside of our field of view we disregard.

The Jews had been using a paradigm of who the Messiah was to be for 1500 years. For them, the Messiah would be a prophet, yes, of the lineage of David, yes, who would restore the nation to its greatness. They were looking for a warrior who would throw off the shackles of Rome as Judas Maccabeus had thrown off

Jesus had come as a prophet yes, of the lineage of David yes; but not as the warrior David, but as the shepherd David. Not to restore the grandeur of the nation, but to establish the kingdom of God. Not to re-consecrate the Temple, but to be the Temple. Not to renew the sacrifices on the Temple altar, but to be the sacrifice that takes away the sins of all the people. He was outside their paradigm, outside their world view. And He was a threat to them.

And then when he says, “I and the Father are One,” to their ears, within their framework, their paradigm, it was simply blasphemy. The concept of One God in three persons, simply didn’t fit their world view, their paradigm.

We too get stuck in paradigms. Why is it we get so stuck in our paradigms? A story about paradigms that might help. This was told by Frank Koch in the journal “Proceedings,” the magazine of the U. S. Naval Institute:
Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. [Koch says he] was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all the activities.
Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, “Light, bearing on the starboard bow.”
“Is it steady or moving astern?” the captain called out.
Lookout replied, “Steady, Captain,” which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship.
The captain then called to the signalman, “Signal that ship: We are on a collision course, advise you change course 20 degrees.”
Back came the signal, “Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees.”
The captain said, “Send, ‘I’m a captain, change course 20 degrees.” “I’m a seaman second class,” came the reply, “You had better change course 20 degrees.”
By that time the captain was furious, He spat out, “Send, I’m a battleship. Change course 20 degrees.”
Back came the flashing light. “I’m a lighthouse.”
We changed course [Koch says].

In the world view of the Jews, the paradigm of the Jews, the Messiah was to be the battleship, the Messiah was to be like Judas Maccabeus who would throw off the shackles of the earthly oppressor. When Jesus came, He was a light house, the light of the world. The Jews were not about to change course.

Mixing metaphors, they were not of this light house’s flock and His signals were not known to them. Jesus said, “You do not believe me because you do not belong to my sheep.”
Even though Jesus, the shepherd, had taught them his voice, they did not believe him to be their shepherd and they did not respond to him. This shepherd was outside of their paradigm, their worldview. Jesus says, “The sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. My father is greater than all else and no one can snatch them out of my father’s hand. I and the father are One.” (10:27, 29-30) This was a paradigm shift they could not accept.

“I and the Father are One.” Unity. Jesus’ unity with the Father was in his relationship with the Father, one of perfect love of the father and perfect obedience to the Father. Perfect love and perfect obedience are the two pillars of unity. And Christ asks unity for us and of us. In John 17, just a few chapters later, Christ prays to God for us saying, “I ask..on behalf..of those who will believe in me...that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may know you sent me.” (17:20-23)

Christ praying that we become one with one another, one with Him and in so doing our oneness, our unity testifies to Christ, that God has sent him. We are to have oneness with Christ so that all the world may know him.

The twin pillars of unity are love and obedience. The manifestation of these pillars of unity are works that testify to Christ. Just as Jesus said, “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me.” The works that we do, the works of the Church of Jesus Christ, also testify to Jesus Christ.

First Pillar: We love God by first believing in him and making that belief manifest by the works that we do that testify to Him.

Second Pillar: We secondly obey God and make that manifest also by the works that we do that testify to Jesus Christ.

In so doing we become one with Christ, one with the Church, one with one another. And we give witness to Christ through our works. That is how the story is told. That is how the world may come to know that God has sent him.

Today is “Change the World Sunday.” But for us, I would prefer it to be “Change the World Summer” as we involve others in the community to gather Health Kits, the things we do in Christ’s name, and thereby witness to him that God has sent Him. Being one with Christ and witnessing to him.

One in love that comes through belief, and one in obedience because we hear his voice saying, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me.”

Susannah Wesley, mother and spiritual guide of John Wesley is quoted as saying, “There are two things to do about the gospel: Believe it and behave it.”

Believe it and behave it. In so doing you will have unity with Christ and with one another. So may we all become believers and become behavers, and in so doing, become one in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Follow Me

2010-05-01T17:48:00.005-05:00

Follow Me
(John 21:1-19)

Introduction

As you know by now, we eloped last week to celebrate our 50^th wedding anniversary with dear friends who live just north of Daytona Beach, Florida. The highlight of our trip was on Sunday. After church (we were Lutherans last Sunday), we headed for Orlando. Marlitt had called a week or two in advance and asked that we stay Sunday night because they wanted to (as our anniversary present) to take us to the opera in Orlando. Now, these friends are our German friends, and Wolfgang (we call him Fred) speaks seven languages. So if the opera is Mozart or Wagner that’s their native language. If it’s Italian, no problem, they speak Italian. Rosemary and I speak South Dakotan. Now they do have subtitles that flash across the top of the stage, and God bless ‘em, the subtitles were in South Dakotan. Good. Actually the opera was Porgy and Bess, in English, sorta’, and it was awesome. A full symphony orchestra, flawless, engaging performances. We have to say we loved it.

But, it was the trip to Orlando that I wanted to talk about. Fred and Marlitt had this little device called a GPS that they stuck to their windshield that provides directions for them to get from their house to the opera house. As soon as Marlitt backed out of the driveway, this little thing said in a soft voice, “Turn right in 100 feet.” And it was right!

In addition, there was a broad green arrow on the display that started straight ahead and then turned right. And then when we got going, it would say, “move left (or get in the left lane), turn left in one quarter mile.” And it was right again. And the arrow showed the way.

Now, give me a map and compass, and I’ll find my way anywhere. But without either, intuition just isn’t good enough. Here’s the difference between men and women. Women know they will be lost and they ask for directions. Men, don’t know they will be lost, and don’t ask for directions. Case in point. In the late 60s, we drove home from Ft Rucker, AL, to South Dakota, and hit Birmingham at traffic hour. Since my destination was not the middle of Birmingham, I decided I could skirt it, go around most of the traffic. That was without a map or a compass. And I didn’t ask for directions. We got miserably lost, in the wrong part of Birmingham. You may remember what was going on in the Birmingham in the 60s. Where we were was not the place to be lost.

Body
But I digress. It is the third Sunday in Easter. The eggs may be stale. But the Easter story never gets stale. When you read the Gospel of John it seems all of the stories are told in the light of the resurrected Christ. Here’s one of the big differences in the Gospels. Mark, written first, is written as if the Messiahship and the resurrection are hidden from the disciples. It’s as if they are saying, “We didn’t know. We were with him for three years and we didn’t know. It was hidden from us.” Matthew and Luke are somewhere in between. But John, before he get’s halfway through, Jesus is saying, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

And this story, this story, is like it is the call of the disciples told early in the other gospels, but here in John told in the light of the resurrection. Remember the stories in the other gospels? Jesus goes to the Sea of Galilee and calls Peter, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” This is almost like that story told in light of the resurrection. If it is not the same story, it is then the “recall” of the disciples by the resurrected Christ. After all from that point forward, the lives of the disciples were defined by the resurrected Christ and so are ours. “Follow me.” No GPS required, “Follow me.”

This last chapter of John is kind of the epilogue. It wraps the whole story together. The book could have easily ended in the previous chapter, Chapter 20, but the author wraps all the story together, pulls all the pieces together and re-calls Peter in the light of the resurrection. It is the renewal of Peter’s call to discipleship in the light of the resurrection. And we too are called and re-called, daily, in the light of the risen Christ. It is our story too.

Beginning in verse 3. Simon Peter says, “I am going fishing.” And they disciples say, “I am going with you.” Resurrection Sunday has come and gone. We don’t know the time frame here. The disciples have left Jerusalem and returned to Galilee. We know from Matthew and Mark that that is where Jesus told them he would meet them. It might have been weeks since Jesus has appeared to them in the Upper Room. Weeks since they’ve seen Jesus. I somehow think Peter is in the doldrums. Would he ever see Jesus again? And what were they to do? Peter says, “I’m going fishing.” Back to what he knows. Back to the material world. “I’m going fishing.” And the rest say, “I’m going with you.” You see, the Easter Sunday story may be about the promise of the future. This story is about the presence of the resurrected Christ in our lives. It is about the present. The resurrected Christ re-calling us (cast your nets on the other side), restoring us (do you love me?), sending us (feed my sheep and follow me). It is about the presence of the resurrected Christ and it is about the present.

“Children, haven’t you any fish?” Jesus had told them in the parable of the vine and the branches, “apart from me you can do nothing.” “Haven’t you any fish. Cast your nets on the right side.” If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit…if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And the story tells us they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. The present reality of the resurrected Christ. Abiding in him, obeying him, finding fruitfulness in him.

The beloved disciple says, “It is the Lord.” Now I think they knew that but sometimes you just have to state the obvious. “It is the Lord.” It is the resurrected Christ who is present in my life, who makes all the difference. Apart from him I can do nothing. But sometimes, sometimes we go back to fishing, we get lost in the material world and we lose sight of Christ. We don’t even recognize him when he appears to us, calls us. It takes someone else to say to us, “It is the Lord.” It is the presence of the resurrected Christ in our lives that makes the difference. Christ is hidden by the world, but revealed by love.

The beloved disciple says, “It is the Lord” and impetuous Peter who has been working stripped down, puts on his clothes and jumps into the water while the other disciples drag the net full of fish. Reading from verse 9: When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. (John 21:9-11)

Now this net full of fish fascinates me. John includes details we just don’t expect. Remember now, that John often tells stories at two levels, the story, the fish, and at a deeper, a spiritual level. And when John includes unusual details we need to be asking, “what did he mean?” Three words about this net full of fish: hauled, 153, and not torn (the net was not torn). Jesus says, “Bring me some of your fish” and Peter hauls the net. Other translations say “draws the net.” In Greek, the word for hauled is the same word Jesus uses to say he will draw all people to himself “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” (12:32) The same he uses when he says, “No one can come to me, unless drawn by the father who sent me.” (6:44) Peter draws the net of fish to Jesus. Draws for the purposes of faith and salvation. Draws.

Then there is this thing about the 153 fish. Lots of numerology in the Bible. Lots of conjecture. My favorite comes from Saint Jerome, fourth century scholar and the one who translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin. The Latin Vulgate Bible. Jerome, great scholar. He said that 153 represented the known species of fishes in the world. That when nets are drawn to Christ, no one is excluded. All are offered faith. All are offered salvation. We all receive the invitation.

And the nets are the church and they are not torn. No one, of any nationality, race or creed is excluded. O, we can surmise that some do not accept the invitation, but all are included. It is the reality of the resurrected Christ that draws us to him. It is his church, the church of the resurrected Christ who includes them. All of them.

When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish on it and bread. Then Jesus took bread, broke it, gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. (21:9;13) Jesus and John do not lose a chance to give us spiritual meaning by means of simple symbols. Peter had denied Jesus three times around a charcoal fire in the courtyard of the high priest. He is about to be restored by the risen Christ around another charcoal fire. The risen Christ makes his presence known in the gift of broken bread. We recognize the presence of the risen Christ as we receive the gift of bread in the Eucharist. Jesus feeds the disciples before they are called to feed his sheep. We too are spiritually fed before we are sent as his church to draw in his nets.

¹⁵When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.” (John 20:15-19

“Peter do you love me more that these?” (More than your boats, your nets, your material possessions; or more than the other disciples? Could be either) Do you love me more than these? Lord, you know that I love you. “Feed my sheep.” Three times. Then “Follow me.”

The resurrected Christ was present to Peter. Peter’s life would be shaped by the presence of the resurrected Christ. This resurrected Christ who ate with them and allowed them to touch his hands and put their hands in the scars of his side. This resurrected Christ was real to the disciples, he was present with the disciples and he defined their lives.

“Peter, do you love me?” “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit, but apart from me, you can do nothing.” The love for Christ would shape the life of Peter. He had a personal relationship with the risen Christ. He acknowledged the presence of Christ with him every step of the way. Peter could have said, “And he walks with he and he talks with me. And he tells me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.”

When we acknowledge Christ. When we allow him to influence the decisions we make and the shape of our lives, we have a personal relationship with him. The resurrected Christ is present with us. The resurrection is a present reality. It is if we say too, “And he walks with me and he talks with me.”

Close
Turn right in 100 feet. Move to the left lane, turn left in one quarter mile. Follow me.

The thing about that GPS on the windshield is that if you disobey it, if you turn too soon, or too late, or in the wrong direction it will tell you. Turn around, turn right, turn right, turn right. But finally, if you just won’t obey it, it’s silent for a while. But then it assumes you still want to get where you are going, and it calculates a new path from where you are to get us on track.

It says, “Follow me.” So may it be in all of our lives. Amen.

Easter: The Transformational Power of the Resurrection

2010-04-05T12:40:00.006-05:00

The Transformational Power of the Resurrection

(John 20:1-18, Luke 24:1-12)

A. Introduction

Easter This is the day the Lord has made! This is the day of Resurrection. This is the day it comes down to. For the past six weeks we’ve been looking at Holy Week one day at a time. Six Sundays ago, Palm Sunday, then the next Sunday, Holy Monday, and on through the week. Last week, we experienced the despair of Good Friday. But today is Easter, the focus of our series. In fact, the focus of Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. For it is the Power of the Resurrection that has transformed the world. And it is the Power of the Resurrection that transforms us too.
Last week, Good Friday, despair. I didn’t tell you about Peter.

On Thursday night, Jesus tells his disciple, that they will all become deserters this night. Peter says, “Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you.” And Jesus says, “Peter, before the cock crows you will deny me three times.” And many of us recall the story. Jesus and the disciples go to the garden of Gethsemane where Judas leads a crowd and the Temple guards and betrays Jesus with a kiss. He is led off in chains to the house of the High Priest to be tried. Peter follows, even though fearing for his life. He stands in the courtyard of the High Priest trying to see what is happening to Jesus. Through this mixture of both fear and courage he is identified by the servants. “You were with Jesus.” “You are one of his followers.” “You are a Galilean; your accent betrays you.” Each time Peter denies knowing Jesus. Even cursing. Three times. After the third time, the cock crowed. Realizing what he had done, the Bible tells us, Peter wept bitterly. You might say, Peter was having a Good Friday moment. Dispair. Bitter remorse. It was to get worse. Jesus was to be crucified and die.

Peter wasn’t the only disciple in despair. All had lost sight of the words Jesus had told them in Galilee, that he was to go to Jerusalem, be handed over to sinners to be crucified, and on the third day rise again! Nobody understood. Nobody was expecting the resurrection. Nobody.

The women too had forgotten. Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, Salome, the other Mary, other women who had followed Jesus from Galilee, all of them were in despair. They, like Peter, were all having their Good Friday moment. Then Saturday. It was a dark, dark Saturday. We sometimes call it Black Saturday.

B. Body

But then comes Easter morning. Early on the first day of the week, the women came to do their last loving act for Jesus, to anoint the body with perfume and spices. But they did not find Jesus. Luke tells us they saw the empty tomb and two radiant angels and were terrified. We don’t often put Easter and terrified in the same sentence. I think the women were still having their Good Friday moment. The Gospel of John said they had gone to the tomb while it was still dark. That’s John’s way of saying they were still in spiritual darkness. They were still having a Good Friday moment.
Mary Magdalene is the only of the women mentioned in all four gospels. In fact, she’s featured in John’s Gospel. She has center stage in the garden. So much so that in the Eastern Orthodox faith, she is considered an Apostle. She is an eye witness to the resurrection, she is called by Jesus to tell the story, and she goes and declares, “I have seen the Lord.” And she tells them all that he had said to her.

Mary, maybe more than any other had been transformed by Jesus. She had been possessed by demons, her life in shambles.
But the transforming love of Christ had changed her life. And he was about to change it again.Peter and John had left. The writer of John says they went home. Mary was left in the garden, the Bible says weeping. Just as Peter had been, Mary was still caught in a Good Friday moment, spiritual darkness still surrounding her.
Jesus, the man she had thought to be the gardner, says, “Mary.” What it must have meant to have Jesus, Jesus, say your name. And Mary says in Hebrew, “Rabouni,” which means teacher, but more than teacher. We lose something in the translation. It means, “My teacher.” Love is a personal thing. My teacher. My Lord and my God. And Mary goes and tells the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.” And then she tells them all the things he had said to her. Mary, transformed by Jesus and then transformed again by the Power of the Resurrection, Mary, transformed Mary, becomes an Apostle of the Church.

Mary was transformed by love.

Love is not a feeling. Lest we get caught up in the Dan Brown, Davinci Code scenario of Jesus and Mary Magdalene having a family together. Let me repeat, love is not a feeling. Love is transformational.
To paraphrase Scott Peck from The Road Less Traveled, “Love is the will to extend oneself in order to positively transform oneself or another spiritually.” Love is the will, it is intentional. Love extends oneself. It takes effort, hard work. Love changes us, transforms us, love will not let us stay where it finds us.We are all spiritual beings. We have a physical body, yes, but we are spiritual beings. Love transforms us spiritually. We grow into the being God intends to be when we are positively transformed by love.

Greg Mortenson has popped up three times in fairly rapid succession in recent weeks. At Christmas, Rosemary gave me a paper back copy of a book, Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson, I have to say the title didn’t appeal that much to me. Three Cups of Tea. Then, as you know, I went to Connecticut in January and stayed a couple days at our former pastor’s house. He had a present for me, a hardback copy of a book, Stones into Schools, by you guessed it, Greg Mortenson. Stones into Schools. That’s sounding more substantial. And then this week, “The Rotarian” magazine shows up. On the cover, you guessed it, is Greg Mortenson. You get the picture?

The long and the short of it is this: What Keith Jaspers and Rainbow Network are to Nicaragua, Greg Mortenson is to the northern reaches of Pakistan and Afghanistan. They are doing the hard work of love to change lives. They have both been giving transforming love to their regions. In the case of Greg Mortenson, to the people living above 11,000 feet, at the highest altitudes that can sustain life, and in some of the most remote and rugged regions of the world.
Here’s the story. Greg Mortenson was a mountain climber who as separated from his guide coming down the mountain from K2, the second highest peak in the world. He stumbled onto the small village of Korphe, where the people nursed him back to health and cared for him over the winter. Once winter sets in you are there. Period.
Here are the children of Korphe.
While there, he promised a young girl, who was trying to learn, unsupervised under a tree, that he would build her a school. He said, “I promise.” He owed these people his life.
He returned to California, he lived for a year in his car, while he tried to raise the funds to build the school, an estimated $12,000. He sent out 580 individually typed letters, every senator, every contact he could think of. From those letters, he received one check and a note. One check for $12,000 and a note that said, “Don’t screw up.”
He then sold everything he had, including the car he’d been living in, for airfare and equipment to return to Pakistan and build the school. The will to extend oneself for the positive transformation of oneself or others spiritually.
Here’s a picture of one of the early schools, and with some of the kids.
That’s love. That’s Greg Mortenson.
Today, 16 years later, there are 131 schools across the highest, the very northern reaches of Pakistan and Afghanistan, 131 schools teaching 58,000 students, more than half of them girls. Does it matter? The saying goes, educate a boy and transform a life. Educate a girl and transform a village. Girls come home. In the case of one girl, completing her grade school education, then tohigh school on a Greg Mortenson scholarship and finally, a on a Mortenson scholarship, a two year maternal healthcare course. Hen she returned home. In the past, nearly every year in her area, 20 women had lost their lives in childbirth. Since her return in 2000, ten years ago, not a woman has died. Extending oneself for the transformation of another. That’s love. That is the transformational power of love, that is the transformational power of the resurrection.

Yet we so often live in a Good Friday world, don’t we? We live in a world where girls in countries like Afghanistan have acid thrown on them by evil people to deter them from going to school. Yet they have so much Easter hope, that they go to school anyway.

We have farmers in Nicaragua whose crops and livestock are destroyed by consecutive hurricanes. But with Rainbow Network there, they have so much Easter hope that they perservere.
We have the poorest of the poor in Haiti who have lost their loved ones and every token they might have had, yet with organizations like the United Methodist Committee on Relief and Catholic Charities there at their side as the heart and hands of Christ, they have Easter Hope and they move on. That is love. That is the Transformational Power of the Resurrection. From Good Friday moments to hope.
But we have Good Friday moments on a personal basis don’t we? Everyone who has lost a spouse, or a child, or has suffered from injury or disease has Good Friday moments. Those are personal moments. But we have a personal Savior in Jesus Christ, one who calls us by name. The same one that though the Transforming Power his Resurrected voice, said, “Mary.” The same personal Savior who with the same Resurrected voice would say to Peter, “Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep.” Mary and Peter lifted out of despair, out of their Good Friday moments by the Transforming Power of the Resurrection. Then as witnesses to the resurrection they were called, sent, and transformed the known world in their lifetime. The Transforming Personal Power of the Resurrection. Proof positive of eternal life, and therefore, we have hope.

On the personal level, it is the power of hope that propels us.

To know that we will be reunited with our loved ones again. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me even though they die, yet shall they live; and whoever lives and believes in me, will never die.” And that gives us hope. The transforming Power of the Resurrection.
To know that it is not a past thing, 2000 years ago, or a future thing, someday, but a present thing. As the song goes, “I serve a living Savior, he’s in the world today, I know that he is living, whatever foes may say. I see his hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer, and just the time I need him, he’s always here. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way. He lives, he lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know he lives, he lives within my heart.”
The transforming power of his love is a very personal and present thing. He lives.

During our sermon series on Holy Week, we’ve been asking the questions what kind of king is Jesus? What kind of Kingdom is he ushering in? And what does he expect of his subjects? What kind of kingdom is he ushering in?

Jesus is ushering in a kingdom where paradise has been restored. The paradise lost in the Garden of Eden is restored in the garden of the empty tomb.
The kingdom he is ushering in is one where paradise continues to break through by means of Jesus’ followers. First through his disciples, then through his Church, and today through agencies like the United Methodist Committee on Relief and through present day disciples like Keith Jaspers and Greg Mortenson, and you showing love to a neighbor. Glimpses of paradise.
Even though it is a Good Friday world, the proof of the resurrection comes glimmering through in the Transforming love of the people called Christians. That is the kind of kingdom he is ushering in.

Transforming love is not always easy. When Greg Mortenson returned to Pakistan to build the first school in Korphe, he bought the materials, had them transported to a town about 20 kilometers away, then made his way to the village to finalize the plans. The way across the river to Korphe, the only way was in a bucket, a cable car over a 100 foot deep gorge. This is the way Mortenson describes it: “It was just a box really, like a big fruit crate held together with a few nails. You pulled yourself along this 350 foot greasy cable and tried not to think about the creaking sounds it made. Tried not to think about the obvious—if it broke, you’d fall. And if you fell, you were dead.” (Three Cups of Tea, p 96)

So Mortenson arrived in the village and after his tea, the village elder said, “We have decided, as much want the school, right now what we need is a bridge. A bridge, so we can carry the school to Korphe village.”
Back to the States, a winter of fund raising to build a bridge the following summer so that the school could be built by fall.
Here are the porters, a year later, carrying the school to Korphe after they had crossed the bridge.
Transformational love is not always easy. It takes will. It takes intention if you are going to transform the souls of those you serve. Christ showed that. Mortenson found that out. Love can be hard work.

We are the Easter People. We are the people of the Resurrection. We are the people called to Transformational love. In fact the mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. For the transformation of the world. We are called to love.

We may not be called to build schools in the Himalayas or even in the rural mountains of Nicaragua; though we can do that by proxy, but we are called to love our neighbor. How transforming would it be if the People called Christians, the Easter People, put a fraction of that kind of effort into our relationships?
If we all had an understanding that love is not a feeling, it is way beyond a feeling. It is the will to extend oneself, to do the hard, hard work of building up another, of giving others the tools of spiritual transformation, of positive spiritual growth.
We are called to transform the place where we are. Love is not a feeling. It is the hard work of helping ourselves and others become what God intends us to be.

And we have the Power of the Resurrection on our side.

On Saturday night, black Saturday night, the disciples and followers of Jesus were a dejected, defeated band of pathetic nobodies.
After Easter, they changed the world! They began where they were, as Jesus instructed, first in Jerusalem, then Samaria, and to the ends of the known world. They transformed the world.

C. Close

We are the Easter People, we are the ones who possess the Power of the Resurrection. We’ve been given a story, we call it the Greatest Story Every Told. And we know that individual lives, families, communities, even nations have been transformed when they’ve embraced that Story.
And the greatest means of story-telling is to love, having the will, doing the work, extending oneself for the benefit of others.
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
We are the Easter People, equipped with the Transforming Power of the Resurrection. Let’s go build the kingdom. Amen.

D. (After the Table is prepared, Recite “One Solitary Life” by James Allen Francis)

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. Then, for three years, he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn't go to college. He never lived in a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him, another betrayed him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his garments, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave, through the pity of a friend.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race. I am well within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned--put together--have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one, solitary life.*

That is the Transformational Power of the Resurrection.

Day 6: Our Crucified Lord

2010-04-05T12:32:00.002-05:00

Our Crucified Lord

(Passion Narrative)

A. Introduction

We’ve spent the Lenten season asking ourselves of Jesus: What kind of king is he; what kind of kingdom is he ushering in? And what does he expect of his subjects? Of us?
The latter first, what does he expect of his subjects? Had we had church last week, we would have learned (and there are hard copies of the text in the back), we would have learned that on the night before he died, Christ taught his disciples and us four things:

A “New commandment that we love one another.”
Through his example in the washing of feet, that we serve one another.
That we love him by obeying his commandments. Love one another, serve one another, love Christ by keeping his commandments.
And four, we learned in his garden prayer, “Not my will but thine be done.” That we love God by submitting to his will. Love one another, serve one another, love Christ by keeping his commandments, love God by submitting to his will.

B. Body

What kind of king is this? He was first a very flesh and blood king. Christ was fully human and as such fully suffered for us on the cross. But by the end of the first century, the first heresy of the church arose. The Greek influence was saying that God would never submit to the cruelty of the cross. It was stamped out by Jesus’ followers. The disciples knew and John especially knew because they had seen him in the flesh, they had touched him. John said, “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life” (1 John 1). John was standing there with Jesus’ mother and saw him on the cross, he witnessed the issuing of the water and blood from his side when the spear was thrust into his side. John knew, John knew that Jesus was flesh and blood and there was no limit to how far this king would go to love us, to forgive us, to reconcile us, to restore the breach between God and us.

It is one thing to sacrifice.
It is quite another to lay down one’s life for us.
And yet another to do it by suffering the cruelest for of pain devised by man—for us. Nails driven directly through his nerves. Excruciating pain as he lifts his body to grasp for air only to do it again for hours until there is no strength, no breath left and he dies a terrifying death of suffocation. Excruciating, a word derived from the cross itself. And all that after he had been scourged, flogged, bits of metal and bone stripping the flesh and muscle as he was whipped again and again. Yes, it is quite another thing to under go the cruelty of crucifixion.
Then it’s even another thing to suffer the indignation of being hung on a tree, cursed by God, taking the whole of sin on oneself, being so ugly with sin that for a moment he was forsaken by God. Yet Jesus would say even to the God who had forsaken him, “Into your hands I commend my spirit.”

What kind of king was this?

A king who loves without limit.
A king who would put himself through any circumstance, and suffering, any injury, any sickness, any guilt, any shame, even death itself to be able to say “I know what you’ve been through, I’ve felt it too and I forgive you.”
There’s a story of a man and wife who early in their marriage, the wife was unfaithful and for over 20 years could never forgive herself, living with guilt and shame that was a deep scar on their relationship, creating a void, a breach between them. Their relationship was never again the same. After 20 years, one day working in the garden together, the man said, “Dear, you know I love, I forgive you.” “How dare you, how dare you forgive me. You have no right to forgive me.”
In Jesus we have one who dared to be the kind of king who could forgive me in any circumstance because he had experienced every circumstance even being forsaken by God.

C. Close

And my response must be,

How dare I not love him.
How dare I not commit my life to him.
How dare I not commend my soul to him.

Our closing him, “When I survey the Wondrous Cross,” closes, “His love demands my life, my soul, my all.” How dare we not give him our all.
Let us close together, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” Amen.

Thursday: A Supper Together

2010-03-21T04:40:00.006-05:00

(Matthew 26:17-30; 31-57)

A. Introduction

Gethsemane, Gethsemane go to dark Gethsemane. Thursday of Holy Week ends with Jesus being arrested. How did we get there? In one of the holiest weeks of the Jewish calendar, how did the story seem to come so abruptly to an end? And what does it tell us about what kind of king Jesus was? About what kind of kingdom he was ushering in? And what is expected of his subjects?

B. Body

Mark begins the story this way: (14.12-13) On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover’? So he sent his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you, follow him…’ Where do you want us to make preparations for the Passover?
The Passover. Recall that over a thousand years earlier, God had sent Moses to Pharaoh to demand that he set the people of Israel free, “Let my People Go.” but Pharaoh refused. Over and over again he refused. God sent plague after plague, pests, turning the water blood red, hail that destroyed crops and killed livestock. “Let my people go.” But Pharaoh refused. Finally, the tenth plague would convince Pharaoh. It would kill every first born in Egypt. But God instructed the children of Israel to take a lamb for each household and slaughter it at twilight for a meal to be eaten in haste. Then they were to take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts and on the lintel of the house in which they ate the meal. The Angel of Death would then pass over the houses, pass over the houses, where the blood had been placed on the doorposts and lintel. They were to eat their meal in readiness to depart, with their loins girded, sandals on their feet, staff in hand. No time to let the bread rise. They were to eat unleavened bread. Then God instructed the children of Israel that they would observe this meal, this festival on the appointed day in perpetuity to remember the mighty acts of God in delivering the children of Israel from slavery to freedom. Now was the appointed time. Thursday evening, this particular week was the appointed time that all the children of Israel, Jesus and the disciples included, were called to observe the Passover. It just happened to be their last supper together.
So, what might the Last Supper have looked like? Here’s the traditional Davinci depiction. We don’t think there is much right in the picture. First of all he shows it as daylight. We know that it was night. More important is the seating arrangement. Archeologists have found Mosaics in Galilee depicting what is called a “triclinium,” a common Greek and Roman seating arrangement, also we believe used in better Jewish homes. Here’s a picture of a typical Roman meal being served at a triclinium. Note there are cushions rather than chairs. It was convenient for serving and for talking across the table. It explains a lot of things in the Biblical narrative that can’t be understood if we have Davinci’s picture in mind.

First, the host does not sit in the middle. This is probably the seating arrangement. We know where Jesus and at least three of his disciples were seated from the Biblical narrative. The host position is position one. Jesus would have sat here resting on his left elbow or hand if the cushion was lower, feet to the rear, eating with his right hand. John, the youngest, and one who might have helped with the meal or to rise and greet guests would have been seated in position 2, and we think Peter would have been here.
Listen to this exchange in the Gospel of John (13:21-26 RSV) When Jesus had thus spoken, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, (We believe John called himself, “The disciple whom Jesus loved) was lying close to the breast of Jesus; (do you see how John here, was lying close to the breast of Jesus?) so Simon Peter beckoned to him (do you see how that would work?) beckoned to him and said, “Tell us who it is of whom he speaks.” So lying thus, close to the breast of Jesus, he said to him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it.” (Now position 3 was the most honored position. It is the position that the host would normally serve. So who was it in the most honored position at the last supper? Judas. Continuing.) When he dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscarot.” (Interesting isn’t it that Jesus has placed Judas in the most honored position at the table. I’ll let you ponder that.)

So how important is the conversation that took place around this table that night? Well, the Gospel of John spends four and half chapters on it. You may recall the events: Jesus washing the feet of the disciples; Jesus reassuring the disciples by telling them, “In my father’s house are many mansions”; Jesus giving a new commandment “that you love one another”; Jesus telling the parable of the vine and the branches, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing”; then Jesus says he will ask the Father to give them the gift of the Holy Spirit to be with them forever; and then he ends the conversation around the table with a prayer for his disciples. Interesting, the Gospel of John really doesn’t talk about what we call “the Last Supper.” He has talked about the body and blood of Christ after the feeding of the 5000. We find the institution of the Last Supper in the first three Gospels and in 1 Corinthians.
So what did he teach us that night? Lots of conversation in John that goes to the heart of Jesus’ love for us.

The Thursday of Holy Week is called Maunday Thursday. Maunday, from the Latin root of mandate and command. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another. Even as I have loved you, that you have love for one another. By this you will be known as my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
His second teaching took place in the washing of feet. (John 13:12-15) ¹²After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” So the second thing he taught us is to follow his example and serve one another.
Then Jesus tells them, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Love one another, serve one another, love Christ by keeping his commandments.
The final teaching comes from the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke tells us that as Jesus prays, he prays, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” Submission, not my will but yours, God’s be done.
So Jesus teaches us to love one another, to serve one another, to love him by keeping his commandments and to love God by submitting to his will. “Not my will but thine be done.’

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And on that night he told us, “Do this, as often as you will, in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor 11:25) The command is to remember, to take, eat, drink as often as you will in remembrance of me. To recall the mighty acts of God in Jesus Christ, to proclaim the Lord’s death until he returns.

On that night as they shared the Passover together, Jesus redefined the meaning of the Passover meal in terms of the New Covenant. He took bread and after blessing it, broke and gave it to his disciples saying, “This is my body given for you.” Christ presenting himself as the substitute for the Passover lamb. The Passover lamb had been given to redeem the first born. Jesus was now giving himself as the Passover lamb. Redeeming us, the first born in God’s eyes, redeeming all of us.
And in the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This is my blood of new covenant, poured out for you.” Never again would a death be required for the forgiveness of sins. Christ defining a new covenant of his love for us.
The Passover feast, the Old Covenant remembrance of God’s mighty acts in delivering the children of Israel from physical slavery to freedom.
The Passover, now transformed into what we call The Communion, the Eucharist, The Great Thanksgiving, the Last Supper as remembrance of God’s mighty acts in Jesus Christ delivering us from slavery to sin to eternal freedom, life everlasting.
“Do this in remembrance of me.”

C. Close

As Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” he follows by asking the Father to give them the gift of the Holy Spirit. God will not leave us alone. It is the Holy Spirit that binds us together as the body of Christ. We are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God (Eph 2:22) Paul told the Corinthians (1 Cor 10:16) “This cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ?”
The Greek word used here for sharing is koinonia, or fellowship, communion, joining together. Communion is more than an individual act, it is an act of joining with the body of Christ in remembrance of this mighty act of salvation, his body broken for us, his blood poured out for us. It is an act of sharing with the community of believers, all of us coming together with Christ, our Rock, our Redeemer.
As we come to the table today, let us remember, yes, that Christ died for us, but that it is also the remembrance of the fellowship of believers that are remembering and joining together as Christ’s body on earth, joining together as the heart and hands of Christ bringing eternal hope to others, being obedient to Christ, loving one another, serving the world around us, submitting to the will of God. So may it be in all of our lives. Amen.

D. (At the Table)

So, what kind of king is this? One who will do anything, go to any lengths to save his subjects.
What kind of kingdom is he ushering in? One in which we are called to love one another, to join together in fellowship to be his body one earth.
And what does he expect of his subjects? “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The Table is set.

Wednesday: Love and Betrayal

2010-03-15T14:24:00.001-05:00

(Matthew 26:1-16)

A. Introduction

Judas must have been livid. A woman of the city. Costly ointment. Three hundred denari, a year’s wages. (By contrast, the 30 pieces of silver that Judas was to receive for ultimate betrayal was but three month’s wages.) He must have been livid. Matthew tells us that the disciples complained that it could have been used to help the poor. The gospel of John also tells us that it was Judas that complained and that he was a thief and that he stole from the common purse that he was entrusted to keep. The poor indeed.
But there may have been more to it. Let’s look at it from Judas’ perspective. Jesus had obviously gone off the deep end. Hadn’t Peter declared him Messiah, the Christ, when we were in Caesarea Philippi? And hadn’t Jesus declared himself so when he entered Jerusalem on a donkey three days ago? Remember, he declared himself the Jewish Messiah.

And where are we now? At the home of a leper. A leper. Unclean, Unclean.
And now a woman touches him in public. We don’t even know who this woman is. And the costly ointment, 300 denari, can you believe it? And what does Jesus say? “By pouring ointment on my body she is preparing me for burial.” If He’s the Messiah, he’s got to get over this fatalistic stuff and get on with the business of overthrowing Rome. Hated Rome. We could be using the 300 denari for our army.
All this is enough to send a person to the chief priests.

B. Body

Let’s go back. It’s Wednesday of Holy Week. Matthew tells us that Jesus’ public teaching is over. He says, “After Jesus finished saying all these things.” All. All these things. Say all. All will be a byword today. The book of Matthew is divided into five teaching segments. After each of the first four, say, following the Sermon on the Mount, it transitions by saying, “After Jesus had finished saying these things.” Here, after the final teachings, it says, “After Jesus had finished saying ALL of these things.” He had finished his teaching sometime Tuesday evening or maybe Wednesday.
But the rest of Wednesday is a drama. And the scenes of the drama move rapidly from one to another. Scene 1: I see Jesus and his disciples leaving the Temple, leaving Jerusalem, and walking to Bethany. On the way, Jesus reminds them of what he had told them in Caesarea Philippi, “You know that after two days, the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

Now you need to understand that Judas wasn’t alone in not understanding what Jesus was saying. None of them did. For them, this was the Messiah, the Christ, the one who would restore the majesty of Israel. The disciples didn’t understand what kind of king this was.
You think I’m wrong? After the resurrection, after the resurrection, they still didn’t get it. After 40 days, they still didn’t get it. In the first chapter of the book of Acts, Jesus is ready to ascend to the Father, and what do the disciples say? “Lord, is this the time you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” And they didn’t understand what kind of kingdom he was ushering in?
No wonder Judas missed the boat. None of them got it. “You know after two days, the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

The scene changes quickly to the palace of the High Priest, Caiaphas. “⁴and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. ⁵But they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.” (Mt 26:4-5) Little did they know that Judas would arrive later in the evening and accelerate their plans. And while all of the drama is playing out privately, we can see the scenes of the drama: Jesus teaching his disciples privately; the Scribes and elders conspiring privately; and Judas, conspiring in his heart privately.
Now the scene shifts to two miles away, to the town of Bethany and the home of Simon the leper.

We don’t know who this Simon is. Remember now, hundreds of thousands of people came to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. They depended on the hospitality of the locals for room and board. Possibly, Jesus was staying at the house of Simon the Leper.
Only Jesus would have stayed at the house of a leper. Unclean. Unclean. Not only were lepers ritually unclean, the disease was thought to be God’s punishment for their sin, and that sin could enter others by touching them. Not only were they ritually unclean, leprosy was a terrible disease. If a man was named, say Simon the Leper, by his condition, this was probably the real deal. There was no doubt it was Hansen’s disease leading to fear, isolation, the deprivation of human contact, and finally death. Only Jesus would have stayed at the house of a leper.
In our time, AIDS is the new leprosy, especially 25 years ago, when it was new. Fear, isolation, deprivation of human contact (remember Ryan White?), then death. Mother Teresa, like no other person, was the heart and hands of Jesus to the AIDS community. Not only did she run real leper colonies in India, she was the first to set up an AIDS hospice mission in New York City called the “Gift of Love.” Juan, one of those cared for is dying. There’s a stirring at the the hospice, at the Gift of Love. Mother Teresa is in town, in New York, and she’s coming to visit. The old nun with the bad heart climbs three flights of stairs to enter Juan’s room. Mother Teresa touches him, “You are going to Jesus, Juan,” she says. “And when you arrive, there will be a great welcome for you. God loves you, you know.” She clasps his willing hand. “When you get to Jesus, Juan, tell him that I love you, the sisters love you, the volunteers and the patients love you. He will know that you have much love.” (“Readers Digest,” December 1987, p 246)
Only Jesus would choose to stay at the house of a leper.

And then there was the woman in our story. Hear it from the Gospel of Matthew: while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, ⁷a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. ⁸But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “Why this waste? ⁹For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.” ¹⁰But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. ¹¹For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. ¹²By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. ¹³Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” (Mt 26:10-13)

Here it is, Jesus’ final night of freedom—tomorrow night he’ll be taken from the Garden of Gethsemane in chains. His final night of freedom and he receives the most extravagant gift of love that this woman knows how to give. Extravagant love, extravagant generosity, so much so that we are still talking about it today. “Whenever this story, whenever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

Jesus explains to them and to us. “The poor will always be with you.” There will always be opportunities to serve; but when the opportunity comes to show great love, it may be a once in a lifetime opportunity. This woman didn’t miss her chance to show great love.
Judas missed it. Another change in scene. John would say it was a dark scene. It was night. It was the blackest act in the history of the world. ^“14Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests¹⁵and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver.¹⁶And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.” (Mt 26:14-16) Mark says when the Chief priests heard it, they were greatly pleased.
On the heal of extravagant love, incredible betrayal. Judas. I want to spend some time talking about Judas. It’s important. It’s important to us.

Why did he choose as he did? Why did he do it? Was it predestined? And was he predestined to eternal damnation? It’s important to us to ask. Because if that’s the nature of God, what about us? Could we be condemned, could we be outside of God’s love?
I will tell you from the outset. NOT. That is not the nature of God. You see the nature of God in this woman with the costly ointment. You see the nature of God in Mother Teresa. You see the nature of God in Jesus. No one is outside of the love of God. No one. So, what is the truth about Judas?

First, it was not God’s will that Judas chose to betray Jesus. But Judas did choose. Why? Why would he choose? There may have been at least two reasons.

First, the money. Greed. Yet, for 30 pieces of silver? Hardly a grand bargain. Just one quarter of the value of the expensive ointment? Could have been greed, but it seems there was something more going on here.
The second, and the one I find most satisfying is zeal. While we have no way of knowing for sure, many believe Judas was a fervent nationalist, a patriot, part of the party of sicarrii, or dagger bearers. If so, Judas in his fervor wanted Rome overturned, and Jesus was the one to do it. Jesus was his man, but he was getting cold feet. He had to be forced to show his hand. Surely if he faced death he would call down his legion of angels and the kingdom would be restored. He had to force Jesus’ hand.
Or there may have been another twist. Judas may have become disillusioned, tired of it all and went the Chief Priests to see what he could get for three years of his life that he had followed Jesus.
In either case, Judas misunderstood, like so many of us, what kind of kingdom Jesus was ushering in. Judas was trying to fit the kingdom to his purpose rather than fitting himself to kingdom purposes. Greg Boyd, a St. Paul, MN, pastor calls this Judas Christianity. We often do that too, don’t we? We try to fit the kingdom to our purposes.
Churches on the right portray issues like pro-life, defense of marriage, national security as kingdom issues and political issues. Politics and the kingdom get blurred.
Churches on the left are no better insisting that the social gospel, caring for the poor, the needy is priority of government, and the roles of church and government get blurred. They too try to fit the kingdom to their purposes.
Jesus said clearly, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Now, it is fine to be right or left or in the middle. It is good to take a stand, to vote, to make a difference in the life of the body politic, but don’t do it in the name of the church of Jesus Christ. “My kingdom is not of this world.” Have you noticed, if the hearts of the people are right, so will be the political institutions. If the hearts of the people are wrong, no political institution can change them. We bring the kingdom of God on earth by changing the hearts of people. That’s kingdom politics. Take a stand, vote, but don’t confuse the two.
So why did Judas choose? Probably to force his political agenda. And it all went wrong.
But the important question is, “Was Judas predestined to eternal damnation?” I’ve wrested with this, and I’ve had much help from a recent sermon by Greg Boyd, Woodlandhills Church. (“Judas Christianity,” 2/7/10) He believes that we have had a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to “fulfill Scripture.” I would marry his thoughts with those of Wesley who fervently believed in free-will, in choice, and Wesley believed we had to look at issues from the context of the whole Bible. So, what does it mean to “fulfill Scripture”? Two things:

The first is Scripture that is prophesy that is predictive.

Moses said “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me among your own people.” (Deut 18:15)
Or like the prophet Micah:
But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days. (5.2)
Or like Malachi foretelling the coming of Elijah, fulfilled in John the Baptist: “⁵Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. ⁶He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents,” (5-6a)
Scripture that was predictive, that foretold, that had to come to be, for the salvation story to unfold. The lineage of the greatest king, the lineage of the greatest prophet who was to be Jesus forerunner.

Others are not predictive, but Jesus simply lives them out like a son fills his dad’s shoes. Nothing predictive or necessary about them but they happened. Two cases:

Let’s read Psalm 69.21: “²¹They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” We know that the soldiers at the cross dipped in sour vinegar and placed on the lips of Jesus. It happened. It was fulfilled. It didn’t have to happen for him to be the Messiah. His food wasn’t poisoned and we don’t say, “Well, his food wasn’t poisoned so I guess he wasn’t the Christ.” His life simply fit Scripture.
Psalm 22 says the soldiers cast lots or his clothing. It happened. It was fulfilled. But it wasn’t predictive, it didn’t have to happen. Or Psalm 22 also implies his bones would not be broken. In most crucifixions they break their legs late in the day to accelerate the suffocation. With Jesus, they did not. The Scripture was fulfilled, but wasn’t predictive, it didn’t have to happen. But Jesus fit the Scripture.
Now to the one which is the crux of the matter, ones that are often quoted as predicting, predestining, Judas as the betrayer of Christ. In the gospel of John, Jesus quotes Psalm 41.9 says, “the one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.” Surely Scripture was fulfilled, Judas was eating with him, but it didn’t have to happen that way. The Scripture wasn’t predictive. We’ll see that if we read the verse from Psalms 41 in context. David writing says
”⁷All my enemies whisper together against me;
they imagine the worst for me, saying,
⁸“A vile disease has beset him;
he will never get up from the place where he lies.”
⁹Even my close friend, whom I trusted,
he who shared my bread,
has lifted up his heel against me.
¹⁰But you, O LORD, have mercy on me;
raise me up, that I may repay them.
David, the writer, says he has a vile disease. Did Jesus have a vile disease? Ever? Not that we know of? David asks to get well so he can extract revenge. Did Jesus ever pray such a prayer? Ever? Not that we know of. The fact that Judas ate with Jesus, fulfilled Scripture; but it wasn’t predictive. It didn’t have to happen that way. Judas chose to betray Jesus. It was not predicted by Scripture. It fit Scripture.

But I think a more important to view this within the context of the whole of Scripture; the reason to say that Judas was not predestined to eternal damnation is that it is not the nature of God to predestine anyone. In fact it is the will of God that all be saved. And that included Judas. That’s what the Bible says. John Wesley was adamantly opposed to the theology of predestination because he read the Bible as a whole. Wesley said, “God knows all believers; and wills that all should be saved.”

a. It is Biblical. God told Abraham (Gen 12: 3), “Through you all the nations of the world will be blessed.” Say all.

b. Isaiah (49.6) said, “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” The whole earth, all the earth. Say all.

c. John ( 1 John 2.2) says,”he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” All the world. Say all.

d. Paul tells us in the letter to Titus (2.11), “¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,” Say all.

e. And in Timothy (1 Timothy 2.3-4), “This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Everyone to be saved. That’s all. Say all.

f. In 2 Peter (3.9), The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” Say all.

g. That’s God through Moses, Isaiah, John, Paul, and Peter.

h. Finally, the one we all know: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosover believeth in him, may not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 KJV) So loved the world, all the world. One last time, say all.

C. Close.

It’s Wednesday, Jesus predicts his crucifixion, then goes to the house of Simon the Leper.

The woman shows her unconditional love for Jesus by doing the most extravagant thing that she could do, the most extravagant gift of love she can provide.
And Jesus prepares to do the most extravagant thing that he could do for you, giving his life for you, the gift of love.
And not just for you, but for all: “¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,” (Titus 2:11)

All means me, all means you, and that means Judas, too… had he chosen it, but instead he chose to betray it. Do we choose the gift of love or do we betray it? It is God’s will, it is God’s gift that we should be saved. It is God’s gift of love. Choose this wondrous gift of love. Amen.

Tuesday: Judgment

2010-03-08T04:56:00.003-06:00

(Matthew 24:1-13; 25-27)

A. Introduction
Our purpose in this series is to prepare us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus as we reach Holy Week. We began two weeks ago with Palm Sunday, Jesus’ entrance in Jerusalem and by his drama, declared himself to be king. We asked ourselves the questions “What kind of king is this? What kind of kingdom is he ushering in? And what does he expect of his subjects, of us?” Last Sunday, Holy Monday, we were with him as the religious leaders challenged him with questions intended to entrap him. We ask ourselves the question “How might we be like the Pharisees? How is it that we may start out with good intentions and find that our choices are taking us away from loving God and neighbor?” Today, Tuesday of Holy Week, is “Judgment”; and next week, Wednesday, is “Love and betrayal,” and the following week is “A Supper Together.”

So Tuesday, where do we find Jesus today? Well, like each day, Luke tells us, Jesus is in the Temple teaching: “37 Every day he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called. 38 And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.” (Luke 21:37-38)

The temple. We simply have no idea. The Temple and temple mount of Jesus’ day was the largest, greatest structure in the world. Let’s look at a short clip from the history channel. (Video looks at the construction of the Temple Mount and Temple with views from the Mount of Olives.)

B. Body
So today is Tuesday. Tuesday is teaching day, a day of teaching about judgment. You recall that on Monday the religious leaders had been questioning Jesus, trying to either implicate him in an insurrection that could be reported to Pilate; or to answer a question in such a way that would cause him to loose credibility with the crowds. Of course neither happened, and they went away frustrated. They returned for one last try on Tuesday morning. Hear the story from Matthew: “34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40)They agreed. The Gospel of Mark tells us that after that, no one dared to ask him a question.

But Jesus asked them as part of his teaching. After all, they believed he claimed to be the Messiah. It was a fitting question, and this may fall into the category of “What kind of king was he?”
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42 “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, 44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?45 If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” 46 No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Now, unless you are your own grandpa, as the song goes, it was not possible for the Messiah to be David’s Lord and son at the same time. What kind of king is he? One greater than David! They may not have understood on that Tuesday. But there was awe and mystery there and no one dared challenge him again.

They might not have known, but we know don’t we. Christ is Messiah and David’s Lord. And he is Lord of our life. Early Christians would declare as their simplest statement of faith: “Jesus is Lord.” And so he is.

We know that after that, Jesus gathered his disciples and the crowds around him and made “not to kind” remarks about the Scribes and Pharisees: He said their legalism caused heavy burdens not intended by God. They were hypocrites, declaring one thing and doing another. They cleaned the outside of the cup but on the inside, it was “full of greed and self-indulgence.” They were like white-washed tombs, beautiful on the outside, “but on the inside full of bones and death and filth.” Then Jesus said, “This generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world.” (Luke 20:50) Wow!If you are going to level a charge, it just as well be a big one.

After the teaching and as they were leaving, the disciples remarked to Jesus (These were Galilean Jews for whom the Temple was not an every day occurrence), about how it was adorned with beautiful stones (Luke 21:5). Jesus said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

You’ve seen the temple. It was made of the same 10,000 lb stones as the Temple Mount. What Jesus just said was beyond comprehension. So that evening, Tuesday evening, as they were sitting on the Mount of Olives looking directly across at the Temple Mount and the magnificent temple, they “came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3)

Jesus tells them these things, many we’ve heard: There will be wars and rumors of wars, persecutions, false messiahs, desecrating of the temple such that the world as they know it would end.

And that was true. In just 40 years, 70 ad after months of siege, the walls of the city, then of the Temple were breached, the city sacked and destroyed, the Temple burned and then razed to the ground. Not one stone left upon the other. The world of the Jewish people, with their Temple-based faith came crashing down.

But we know that Jesus had become the cornerstone of the new Temple, literally ripping the curtain that had barred access to the Holy of Holies and giving direct access to all people through him to our heavenly father. Never again would a sacrifice have to be made to heal the breach between God and humanity. Christ was that sacrifice. Jesus the sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus the new high priest going before the throne of God once and for all. Jesus the cornerstone of the new temple, the body of Christ, the new dwelling place of God on earth. (from Eph 2:20-21)

That was the end of one age, the age of a Temple-focused religion.

But Jesus also talked of the end of another age The question asked by the disciples really implied two questions: When would this occur? And what will be the sign of your coming? The latter would be the age of his second coming, an age that we all must face.

The hour and day are unknown: “But about that day and hour, no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36)

Jesus told of the necessity for watchfulness” 33 Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35 Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36 or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.” (Mark 13:33-37)

And this is the one that frightened me as a child. I was fearful that I was not ready. I didn’t know how long it would take for me to get ready. Jesus says, “so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. (Matthew 24:39b-44)

Then Jesus told two more parables, one of the ten bridesmaids and the other the parable of the talents. Ten bridesmaids were waiting through the night for the bridegroom could come so that the festivities could begin, but five were were foolish and had brought no oil for their lamps and tried to borrow some but were told to go and buy their own. While they were out buying the oil, the bridegroom came and took the wise bridesmaids, those who were prepared, to the wedding party and closed the door to the foolish maids. And the moral of the story is that no one else can prepare for us. We need to bring our own oil. We need to be prepared in advance. Jesus ended the story by saying “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the hour nor day.”

And we all know the parable of the talents. Three slaves were entrusted with talents, a life time of wages. Two employed the master’s talents to make more. The third buried it in the ground simply to preserve it, fearful of the master’s judgment if he lost it. The master ends by saying, “As for the worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Preparation is making use of our gifts in the service of the Master.
So how is that we prepare ourselves. How is it that we serve the Master, do his wishes with the talents, the treasure we’ve been given? Maybe the clue is in the final, the very last parable of Jesus’ teaching, the very last parable of all.

(Read Matthew 25:31-46, the parable of the judgment of the nations (Sheep and goats))

We began Tuesday morning with Jesus answering the question, “Which is the greatest commandment in the law?” To love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind strength, and the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself. On these hang all the law and the prophets.

Is it possible that all of the day’s teaching was in answer as to how we fulfill those commandments? And in so doing, preparing ourselves?

How is it that we love God? And love him now, rather that waiting til the end of the age? How do we prepare ourselves for his coming? By what will we be measured when we stand in judgment? And we all will.

Keith Jaspers, the founder of Rainbow Network believed that Matthew 25, the parable of the judgment of the nations, the “Sheep and the Goats,” gives us no choice. We love God, we serve our Master, we prepare ourselves for judgment by serving the least of these in our society and in the world. For Keith Jaspers, we have no choice; there is no option. It is the love of Jesus played out in the service of the least of these that drives a man like Mel West, and members of the Salvation Army corps, and those who work in food pantries, at Habitat for Humanity sites, clothing stores, or shelters. Or dig wells for thirsty villages.The good news is that all of these have created frameworks by which one or more of us can serve the least of these, and in so doing, serving Jesus.

C. Close
Will we be ready? I can still picture myself in that Sunday School room when I was in grade school, hearing “two will be in the field, one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together, one will be taken, one will be left.”

We will neither know the hour nor the day. You all know those who thought they had a lifetime in front of them to prepare, and suddenly they didn’t. How much time will we have to prepare? Jesus says, “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

Be ready. Amen.

Monday: Authority, Taxes and Marriage

2010-03-02T10:35:00.004-06:00

I continue to be indebted to Adam Hamilton for the concept of this series. I have understood Jesus' teachings in vignettes but not in the totality of the week.

Luke 19:47-20:2

A. Introduction
The conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders had begun years before in Galilee where they had sent their representatives to challenge Jesus especially for his seeming disregard of their Sabbath laws, and his association with sinners. (see Lk 13:10-17) But now this upstart from Nazareth was teaching in Jerusalem in their Temple. This country bumpkin who had no education, who had not sat at the feet of the great teaching Rabbis, who had just thrown the money changers and merchants out of the Temple, who did he think he was? And it says, the people were spellbound by what he said. They were hanging on every word.

Today we focus on Monday of Holy Week. Although that day is four weeks away on our 21st Century calendar, we’re taking a day of Holy Week each Sunday to follow Jesus during his final week on earth. Three months before, he had resolutely set his face toward Jerusalem to arrive during the Passover festival where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims would have been gathered. He had entered Jerusalem yesterday, Palm Sunday, and been declared Messiah, anointed one, King by the throng who shouted, “Hosanna (God save us), Hosanna to the son of David.” Surely this was the King who would throw off the shackles of Rome and restore Israel to the greatness of his ancestor David. Surely this is the one.

By the drama he had played out, entering Jerusalem on a donkey as it had been foretold, Jesus had declared himself King, but as we know, not the kind of king they were expecting, and before the week was out, he was rejected by those same crowds.

Yet the New Testament writers go to great lengths to point to Jesus as the Messiah, the Hebrew word for anointed one. The Greek word is Christ. From Matthew to Revelation, we know that Jesus is King. So as part of this series, we are asking the questions,
What kind of king is he?
What kind of kingdom is he ushering in?
What does he expect of his subjects?

I guess that is kinda’ what the religious rulers of that day were wondering. “By what authority are you doing all of these things, saying all of this stuff?” But their motive was more than just wondering; after three years of conflict, they’d had enough. They believed Jesus a threat to their comfortable life. While it seems extreme, they sought to kill him. He was either blaspheming, claiming to be God, which was punishable by death, or he would cause an insurrection which would bring Rome down on their heads, a chance they couldn’t take. He had to be dealt with. So they send waves of people to question him, trick him into incriminating himself. We’re going to talk about three of those encounters today.

B. Body
Let’s hear the first of the encounters. Reading from Matthew: 23 When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. (Mt 21:23-27) Jesus had turned the tables and put them between a rock and a hard place, but Jesus didn’t stop there. In rapid succession, he told them to the delight of the crowd, three parables:

One of a man with two sons, both told to go to work in the vineyard. The first said he wouldn’t go but did. The second said he would but he didn’t. Then he said this: 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. (Mat 21:31-32).

That wasn’t enough. He then told the parable of the wicked tenants. Remember the story? The land owner went away leaving the tenants in charge then sent slaves to collect his rent. But they beat them, one after another. Finally, he said, I’ll send my son, surely they will respect him. Jesus says, 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” (Mt 21:38-41).Do you get the picture? He was talking about and with the religious leaders, those standing right in front of him!

Even that wasn’t enough, he then told the parable of the wedding banquet. The wedding was all planned, the invitations out to the finest guests. But when the final arrangements were made, they said they were too busy. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Mt 22:7-14).

Luke added, “None of those invited will taste my dinner.”

What had set this off? The chief priest’s response to Jesus’ question, “We do not know.” We do not know whether John’s authority came from heaven or earth? We do not know. Get serious. Of course they knew. I would ask you, how often do we say that? How often do we know full well what God requires of us and we say to ourselves, “Well, I’m not sure whether that’s God telling me that or not.” We do that don’t we? We need to ask ourselves, are we the child that said we would but didn’t? Are we the one who accepted the invitation but when we found out the details, decided we were too busy to have Christ in our lives?

Who is invited to the kingdom? Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom ahead of you.” Just so we don’t misunderstand, we don’t have to become tax collectors and prostitutes to get there, we simply need to acknowledge Christ’s authority in our lives.

By the way, was this question, “by whose authority?” an authentic question? Not on your life. It was a trick. They were looking for Jesus to incriminate himself. They had hoped Jesus would say, “Because I’m the Messiah, the King, that’s why.” They would have marched right over to Pilot and said, “You’ve got a man out there claiming to be king, and we know, there is no king but Caesar.” Gotcha Jesus. It didn’t happen. They went away more furious than ever.

So, the next wave arrived. Mark says, the Pharisees and some Herodians came to entrap him. Herodians, Jews who were influential supporters of King Herod Antipas. The Pharisees and the Heroidans were going to put Jesus in a conundrum, between a rock and a hard place of their own. So listen to this “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Mt 22:16b-17)

Aha, they had him now. If he says, “No, don’t pay taxes,” it’s off to Pilot again. But if he says, “Yes, pay taxes.” The crowds expecting him to throw off the oppression of Rome will go nuts. The crowds may kill him themselves. He’ll certainly be discredited in their eyes and we won’t have any more problems with this Jesus.

We know Jesus’ reply don’t we? We know it whether we’ve ever read the Bible or not, whether we’re Christian or not. What did he say? “Show me a denarius,” a Roman coin. “Whose image and inscription is this?” Caesar’s. Then what did Jesus say? “Render to Caesar’s the things that are Caesar’s, and to God, the things that are God’s.” And then Matthew tells us, “When they heard this, they were amazed. And they left him and went away.”

So let’s talk about this (Again, I'm indebted to Adam Hamilton's interpretation). Here’s a picture of a denarius, the coin of the realm. And that picture is of Caesar Tiberius, the inscription says, “Son of the divine Augustus.” In other words, this, to begin with, is a graven image. It’s made in the image of Caesar who claims to be divine. In the image of Caesar. “Render to Caesar.”
What about you? In whose image are you made? Genesis tells us, “God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them.” You were made in the image of God.
“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” But the more important part is you: “Render unto God the things that are God’s.” How is it going?

It’s still Monday, and here comes wave number three. Matthew says, “That same day some Sadducees came to him.” (Mt 22:23a) Now the Sadducees were kind of the religious elite. They believed in the books of Moses, the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, but thought all the rest was Johnny come lately. They didn’t believe in the books of the prophets, they didn’t read any of the wisdom literature. As a result, they didn’t believe in the resurrection. And when Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” they certainly didn’t believe him. So they too devised a question that would stump Jesus, and would show just how dumb his idea about the resurrection was.

One other thing before we read the passage. Remember how important we’ve said the land is? God promised the land to Abraham 3500 years ago, and we’re still fighting over the land. Well, one of the laws to ensure that the land passed from generation to generation was the levirate marriage law. If a man died and his wife was barren, in other words, no heirs to inherit his land, the brother was to marry the wife and have children with her that they could inherit the land. It was a law of necessity for the survival of the nation. The land had to be passed on. By the way, it also shows us the place of women in their society. They were property who really couldn’t own property themselves.

So (reading Mt 22:23-28) 23 The same day some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, 24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. 26 The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. 27 Last of all, the woman herself died. 28 In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them had married her.”And Jesus replies, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astounded at his teaching. (Mt 22:29-33) Let’s take this in reverse order. The second point is the most important point. There is a resurrection. Jesus said it. I believe it. Jesus said it. I’m staking my life on it. You should too. You.. should.. stake.. your.. life… on .. it!

But here’s the thing, Jesus used their own arguments against them. What did they believe? The Torah, the books of Moses. What does Jesus use? The Torah, God’s encounter with Moses at the burning bush, one of the most famous stories of all. God says to Moses, “I am the God of your father. the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” I am, not I was. I am the God of. God is the God not of the dead, but the living. Like I said, I believe in the resurrection. Jesus said it. I believe it. I’m staking my life on it. You should too.

Now back to marriage. Jesus tells them they don’t understand. They don’t know either the scripture or the power of God. “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” One person said, (You judge whether he was wise or not) “Well, it makes sense, it wouldn’t be heaven if there was marriage.” I’m not touching that one.

But here’s what I would say, the culture of Jesus’ day, and even in the day of levirate laws had a shallow view of marriage. The woman was property. The woman needed protection. The woman could not survive without marriage. Yet God in his wisdom had called marriage to be more, for us to become one flesh. In heaven, we will be one flesh again, in this case the body of Christ. We will all belong to someone again, in this case we will belong to God. We will all love completely once again, and in this case the source of that love is God. Will we see and love those who are dear to us? Certainly and we will love them more completely that we can imagine.

Remember, Paul tells us, now we see in the mirror dimly, then we shall see face to face. We will understand how the widow can love all of her husbands equally and need not be the property of any of them. We will see how we can love God and one another completely in the Kingdom of God we are being called to. If we now lack understanding, it is because like the Sadducees, we too do not know the power of God. We do know this: It will be heaven. And I’m staking my life on it.

C. Close
“By whose authority?” Do we say, “I don’t know.” Or do we say, “By your authority, Jesus Christ.” Do we say, “I am wonderfully made in your image; I render myself to you.”? Do we say, “I believe you are the God of the living; I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting”? I believe it. I’m staking my life on it. I am yours. I am submitting my life to you. I will do whatever you tell me to do.

That should be our prayer, shouldn’t it?

John Wesley had a similar prayer that he asked his people to renew every year as part of their covenant relationship with God. It’s on the screen in front of you. I would ask you to place your hands open, palms up, in front of you. Open in a position of submission, but also open as a means of collecting the grace of God flowing to you. A covenant relationship is a two-way street and we receive grace upon grace. Let us pray Wesley’s Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low by thee.Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou are mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Day 1: Palm Sunday

2010-02-22T06:14:00.002-06:00

Day 1: Palm Sunday
(Luke 19:29-46)

A. Introduction
We’re in a new series of sermons for Lent. I’m indebted to Adam Hamilton for the series theme, the “Final Week.” I’ve struggled with what to do on Palm Sunday every year. Should I emphasize Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday? How do I teach about all that went on, all that Jesus taught us, all that Jesus did for us that final week in Jerusalem? There was simply never time in one sermon. Yet the final week is the week of your salvation.

So in this series, rather than taking one Sunday, we are going to the Final Week the entire period of Lent, six Sundays. Then during Holy Week, we will be prepared to follow the footsteps of Jesus. As we indicated last week, Holy Week is special. It is the only week in the Christian calendar that Christians all over the world follow the footsteps of Jesus hour by hour. We enter Jerusalem with him. We go to the Temple with him. We go in prayer to the Mount of Olives with him. We hang on his teachings. We are there as he washes his disciples’ feet, as he institutes the Last Supper, when he goes to the cross, the grave.

So, to do that, to be prepared to do that, today we are going to examine Palm Sunday, the first day of the week; next week, holy Monday; the following Sunday, holy Tuesday; and so on, until the Sunday of Holy Week, we will be there following the footsteps of Christ to the cross.
Last week, we followed Jesus from Galilee to Jericho. Jesus had resolutely turned his face toward Jerusalem, fully aware of what awaited him. He spent at least three months on that Journey turning the world upside down. In fact, Luke spends from chapter 9 to 19, more than a third of his gospel on the journey. Jesus taught us about the kingdom, about God, about how to live as kingdom people, about who is in the kingdom.. We said we wanted to ask three questions during the sermon series: What kind of king is this? What kind of kingdom is he ushering in? And what does he expect of his subjects? We’ll learn more about what kind of king this is today.

B. Body
Jesus had arrived in Jericho late in the week before Passover. According to he gospels, he either spent Saturday, the Sabbath, in Jericho, or more likely, according to John’s gospel, Bethany at the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, about two miles from Jerusalem. If that was the case, about mid-day he begins his walk to Jerusalem. The crowds have gathered.

This is Sunday of Passover week. It had been Jesus’ plan from the beginning to arrive during Passover. That’s where the people are.

You recall that Passover is the annual festival that the children of Israel were called to observe commemorating God’s deliverance of them from slavery in Egypt. The last of the 10 plagues was the death of the first born through out the land of Egypt. The children of Israel had been instructed to take a lamb without blemish, to slaughter it at twilight, to take some of the blood of the lamb and wipe it on the doorposts and the lintel of their homes and seeing the blood, the angel of death would Passover their homes.

It was such a dramatic deliverance that the nation of Israel was to remember the Passover every year, on a day based on the Jewish lunar calendar. Easter is too is based on a lunar calendar. Easter varies from year to year. As a tidbit, Easter is the Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox of 325 AD which just happened to be March 20th. So the earliest date Easter can be is March 21st, and the latest would be April 18th.

Passover begins the 14th day of the first month of the Jewish calendar, also a lunar calendar, which also begins approximately, not exactly, with the vernal equinox. This year the Passover begins the evening of March 28.

So Passover and Easter are sort of the same time frame. This year, Passover begins Monday night of Holy Week. In the first Holy Week, the week Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, we believe it began Thursday night. But pilgrims began arriving early, to be in Jerusalem, to be ready for the Passover.

Jesus’ plan from the beginning had been to arrive during Passover week. Jews came from all over the world to be in Jerusalem during Passover week. Family gatherings of 10 or so would participate in the Passover meal the first night of Passover. They would take their lamb to the Temple to be slaughtered in preparation for the meal. How many lambs? How many people? William Barclay, Biblical scholar, reports that about 30 years after Jesus, the Romans did a census of the lambs killed in Jerusalem during Passover. The number was an astounding 250,000. With 10 people per lamb that would be 2.5 million visitors to Jerusalem, whose population was normally about 80,000. If it it was one-half of that, Jerusalem would have grown by ten times during Passover. Jesus was going to Jerusalem at Passover. That’s when the people were there. That’s when the king was to arrive. That’s when the Messiah was expected. Messiah the anointed one. King, the anointed one. In Greek, the work “anointed” one is Christ. So Christ is not Jesus’ last name, it is his title, King, Jesus King, Jesus Christ.

Some would like to argue that Jesus never claimed to be king. But on this day, Jesus clearly does so. Not just any king, but the Messiah, the one foretold by the prophets. He was coming to his city, Jerusalem, Zion, on his way to his palace, the Temple of God. For the people, he was the promised king entering his city. For Jesus, it was more. He was God returning to his throne.
So how was the king to arrive? The people knew. Five hundred years before, the prophet Zechariah had prophesized, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, you king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zech 9.9)

In those days, donkeys were respected animals. When a king came in peace, he came on a donkey. In this special case, a donkey that had never been ridden. There was something sacred about an object or animal that had never been used, never ridden, in this case, colt, a foul of a donkey.

And let’s be clear. The donkey didn’t just magically appear. Jesus had made arrangements. He had sent messengers before him. He was making a statement. He was playing out the drama of the king arriving in Jerusalem. He knew it. The people greeting him knew it.

And because the people knew it, it dictated what happened next. The people in all the villages throughout Jesus’ journey had known the king was coming and they had lined the streets to see him. On the outskirts of Jericho we’re told the story of the blind man calling out. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” The messengers had gone ahead, the people knew the king was coming. Let’s read Mark’s version. That’s probably the earliest written and most succinct. (Mark 11:1-11)

Cloaks, they spread their cloaks on the road. In 2 Kings 9, (this is ancient Israel now) Elisha anoints Jehu as king. Verse 13 says, “Then hurriedly they all took their cloaks and spread them for him on the bare steps and he blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”
Cloaks and branches. Cloaks, spreading cloaks to honor the king. Branches, used in Jewish festivals, and especially recognizing a king who had thrown off the oppressors.
Two hundred years earlier, Judas Maccabaeus had overthrown the Greeks and cleansed the temple and the people had greeted him waiving palms and offering hymns of thanksgiving (2 Mac 10.7)

And for Jesus, “Hosanna, (God save us). Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Blessed is the kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest heaven.”
The people had it both right and wrong. Jesus was king, yes. But they were looking for Judas Maccabaeus to throw off the oppressor Rome. They were looking for King David to restore the greatness of the earthly kingdom. They wanted a king who was commander, a military victor as king.

And you see, that wasn’t the kind of king Jesus was. Jesus did not come with a sword, but humble, riding on a donkey.

Mark says, “Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the Temple.” The Temple, his palace, God’s palace. Matthew tells us “12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” (Mt 21:12-13)

Jesus had long been at odds with those who had distorted God’s intentions, especially at the expense of the poor. And that’s what was happening here. The money changers and those selling doves for sacrifice were taking advantage of the poor.

The priests and religious rulers who ran the temple were essentially stealing from the poor. In order to run the Temple, there was a Temple tax, about two days wages. Jesus had no problem with that. But it had to be paid in a certain currency. No Roman coins with Caesar’s face on it. So they charged the visitors to the temple 3 hours wage to change the currency. Oh, by the way, if you didn’t have exact change, there was another 3 hours wage charged just to give them change.

But the doves were even worse. Barclay reports that a dove could be had outside the temple for about a day’s wage. Now doves were allowed by the law as the sacrifice to be offered by the poorest of people. Those who had money offered an animal. These who were the poorest of people offered doves. Of course those who sold doves insisted that the ones outside the temple were blemished. If you wanted an unblemished dove to be offered you needed to buy one in the Temple and not one day’s wage, but twenty days’ wages. Are you getting the message?
Jesus said they had made my Father’s house a den of thieves and so they had.

As so often times happens, people had started out with the best of intentions. These priests were not bad people. They had set themselves up to offer a service, but over time they wandered away and became corrupted.

What about us? Do we start with good intentions and wander from the path? Easy to wander when the path is wide isn’t it? Jesus had said, “wide is the gate and broad is the path that leads to destruction.” Enter by the narrow gate. Narrow is the gate that leads to life. If there is no one to hold us accountable, we wander, we make the easy choice.

Palm Sunday was a day of choices
The choice of a kind of king we will follow
One who came for war
Or one who came in peace.

The choice of the kind of kingdom we believe he calls us to
A kingdom of this earth, bound by materialism and greed.
Or an eternal kingdom, one not of this earth.

The choice of subjects we will be
Ones who choose the path that is wide and easy, a path that makes few demands. One which allows us to wander from our values.
Or the narrow way, one which is difficult, but one which leads to life.

Lent is a time for us to review our choices.
Unfortunately, that week the people of Jerusalem made a choice and rejected Jesus as king. The Jewish people who wanted a king who would rebel against Rome.

Jesus knew that the easy way was not the way for Jerusalem. Rebellion may have felt good. Jesus knew that eventually, it would lead to their destruction. He wept over Jerusalem knowing that one day not too distant they would rebel and Rome would crush them. Throwing down every stone, taking a 100,000 into slavery, killing, slaughtering 1.1 million Jews in the process. They had chosen the way that leads to destruction when Jesus was offering them the path of peace. As Jesus said, the did not recognize their visitation from God.

We know too, don’t we, that life has choices. Life works that way too. Life is a series of choices. So often we choose what feels good: drugs, alcohol, pornography, gambling. They feel good, yet everyone of us have seen them lead to destruction. Revenge is another of those things that we think make us feel good but can destroy us. Jesus called us to reconcile. He said we must forgive seventy times seven. Paul told us to bear one another, forgive one another just and the Lord has forgiven us (Col 3:13). Forgiveness may be the narrow way, but I can tell you when forgiveness saved me, kept me from destruction. I think in this case, forgiveness was a gift of God. It was not what I chose, it was what I had to do.

When we lost our son Jeff, it was because the boy driving had been drinking and was not paying attention to the road, running off the road at 35 miles an hour and Jeff was killed. Just a little attention, just a little, and Jeff would be alive.

Unforgivable! Yet it was not. God called us to forgive. I wrote Andy a note forgiving him, but I wonder what it meant, if it sunk in? Jeff’s funeral service was a strange one. We arrived a little early, sat in the front row in our grief. The funeral home filled up behind us, we had no idea who was there. When the service was over, I wanted to know, I wanted to know all the people who had come to share with us.

There was a place to go from the front, down to the door so we got there before anyone had filed out from the back. We greeted, we talked with, we cried with everyone who was there. Then in front of us were Andy and his parents. I think all of us were really in shock at coming face to face. Yet through the tears, forgiveness was conveyed. It saved me, it saved us, it probably saved our marriage.
You see, Rosemary and I for years in our grief, embraced, often cried to exhaustion. I can’t imagine we would have survived if our hearts had also been filled with revenge, un forgiveness. Revenge would have led to our destruction. Forgiveness led to life.

C. Close
Lent is a time we review our choices.
What kind of a king is it we will follow?
What kid of a kingdom are will we choose to be part of?
What kind of pathways, wide or narrow will we choose? Those that lead to destruction or life?

Today Jesus enters your life as a King riding on a donkey. What kind of king will you make him to be? How will you follow him?

During this Lenten season, take some time each day. Use the Upper Room as a guide or the study guide that follows this sermon series. Read a Bible verse. Ask God to aid you in reviewing your life. Ask God to aid you in reviewing your choices. You want to make the choices that lead to life. So may it be in all of your lives. Amen.

Turning His Face Toward Jerusalem

2010-02-19T07:18:00.005-06:00

Sermon at Smith Chapel, Feb 14, 2010. Beginning of our Lenten sermon series. I'm indebted to Adam Hamilton for the theme of the series, taking a day of Christ's final week for each Sunday in Lent. Follow the series. Prepare yourselves for Holy Week.

(Luke 9:51-52 NIV)

A. Introduction
Jesus resolutely turned his face toward Jerusalem. Today we begin our Lenten sermon series. A series that will prepare us for Holy week. Jesus, today, begins that preparation for us. The Bible says, “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven.” Jesus knew full well what awaited him in Jerusalem, yet he resolutely set his face there. Jesus had three months to live, but he knew he had work to do. We have work to do before he arrives six weeks from now.
Today we’re going to talk about Jesus’ journey from Galilee, where he had spent most of his time in ministry, from Galilee to Jericho, where he had arrived a day or two before Palm Sunday. Today we begin to follow Jesus. Then beginning next Sunday, we are going to take each day of Holy week in turn, next Sunday, Palm Sunday, the following Sunday, Holy Monday, the third Sunday, Holy Tuesday, and so on, until we arrive at the Good Friday, the crucifixion of Christ on the Passion Sunday of Holy Week.

This is my purpose. Holy Week is a special week. It is unlike any other week in the Christian calendar. It is a week in which Christians all over the world follow in the footsteps of Jesus. All of us. We are with Jesus as arrives in Jerusalem and palm branches are laid at his feet. We are with him as he goes to the Temple and overturns the money changers, We go to the Mount of Olives to pray with him. We are with him when he teaches. We are with him when he washes the disciple’s feet and institutes the Last Supper. And we follow him to the cross and his body to the grave.

This year, by taking each day of Holy Week in turn, we prepare ourselves, we are reminded of Jesus’ steps so that when Holy Week arrives, we may better follow him, we may better learn from him, we may better come to realize from him, what he has done for us. We may better learn of the grace of God, poured out for us and for many for the forgiveness of sins and be thankful.

B. Body
So that’s where we’re going. Today, Jesus resolutely turns his face toward Jerusalem. This trip could have taken a week, we believe it took somewhere between three and six months. Jesus had things to do during this journey. He was not only turning his face toward Jerusalem, he was about to turn the world upside down. In Luke, this journey takes from chapter 9 to 19, over one third of his book. Jesus had things to do and things to teach us during this journey. And that’s the wonderful thing about these passages: we are able to not only witness his teaching, but be witnesses to his doing, his example, during this journey.

It’s in these passages that he teaches us about the kingdom of God, he tells us about the Good Samaritan, he tells parables that teach us the nature of God like the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the Prodigal Son. These are the stories we hear with our ears.

But Jesus also does. He enters Samaria and breaks down old hatreds, he invites women to become his disciples and defeats old cultural barriers, he heals lepers, the outcasts, those thought to be the dregs of society, and he eats with sinners. That’s what Jesus does. That’s what he shows us. These are the things that we witness with our eyes when we follow Jesus.
Now, we said that Jesus would be teaching us during this journey about the Kingdom of God. I have three questions that I want us to wrestle with each week during this series:
One, What kind of King is this?
Two, What kind of kingdom is this?
Three, What does he expect of us, his subjects?
King, kingdom, subjects; Jesus, kingdom, disciples; Jesus, our world, us.

Some brief background on Jesus’ world, the world in Jesus’ day.
First the Samaritans. The Jews viewed them as heretics. There were centuries of hatred and animosity between them. The Jews and the Samaritans truly hated one another. Think of the Palestinians and the Jews today. Why would anyone even talk to those people? We need to build walls. We need to be separate. Pure hatred.

Second, women, third class citizens. Property, a decent man never talked to a woman not his wife or mother or sister. You just didn’t associate with them outside the house. Even the synagogues were split with men on one side and women on the other.

Third, lepers, lame outcasts. They had sinned or so it was thought. They had brought whatever they had on themselves. Outcasts, cast them outside the village, outside of society. You never touched them, it would make you unclean. Think of it, people deprived of human touch.

Four, tax collectors. Jews that were representatives of Caesar, Rome, taxes collected to support the oppressive Army. And not only that, the tax collectors extracted more to enrich themselves. They were as despised as the Roman Army itself, maybe even more because they were betrayers.

This was Jesus’ world, one of separation, segregation, and animosity.

Jesus was probably right on the border of Galilee and Samaria, when “a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, ‘Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘What is written in the law? How do you read?’ The lawyer said, ‘Your shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ Jesus said to him. ‘You have answered rightly, do this and you will live.’But he, the lawyer, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell among thieves who stripped him and beat him and left him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion, and he went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. The he set him on his own beast and took him to he inn and took care of him. The next morning, he took out two denari and gave them to the innkeeper saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I return.’ Which of these three proved neighbor to the man who fell among thieves?’ He said, ‘The one who showed mercy on him.’ Jesus said, ‘Go, and do likewise.’ (Luke 10:25-37 RSV)

Ask yourselves, what kind of King is this?
What kind of kingdom is he ushering in?
What does he expect of his subjects?

Jesus not only teaches but he does. In the area between Galilee and Samaria, Jesus encounters 10 lepers, outcasts, Jews and Samaritans, and what does he do? He heals them, and in so doing draws them back into the mainstream of society, allowing them to be touched by others once again. What do you suppose he expects of us?

Then Jesus tells another story, (Luke 18:10-14) “Two men when up to the Temple to pray, a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all my income.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” I tell you (Jesus said), this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exult themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be justified.”
What kind of King is this?
And who will be in his kingdom?

But then there was the Jesus who does. (Luke 19: 1-10) He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”Jesus, the King who does, who seeks and saves, the king who does.

Finally, between Jericho and Jerusalem is Bethany, the home of Mary and Martha. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, as one of his disciples. You remember the story. Martha was in the kitchen, too busy. I’m sure one day she realized, “the king of the universe was in my front room and I stayed in the kitchen.” But Mary was a disciple. We know too that Jesus welcomed other women as his disciples. It was Mary Magdalene who first visited the empty tomb, who first encountered Jesus in the garden. There was the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. The woman who anointed Jesus with the costly nard. And others. Who is this King and what kind of Kingdom is he calling us to?

C. Close
Jesus is preparing a nation, Israel for Holy Week. In this series, I would hope that we would be preparing ourselves once again, too.

What can we learn from the journey of this King from Galilee to Jericho?
Who are the Samaritans in our lives? Our polar opposites politically? Are they our Samaritans? People of other religions or races or sexual orientation. Are they the ones? The rich, the poor, the lame, those we call lazy? Are they the ones?
Who will be in Christ’s kingdom? Will there be people there who will surprise us? Will they be surprised to see us there? How accepting are we?
Who might we be called to heal?

What is it we are to learn from Jesus this Lenten season?
Will we walk with him? We learn from him by following him, by being his disciples in this Lenten journey. So may it be with all of us. Amen.

At the Center and at the Margins

2010-01-24T05:24:00.003-06:00

Bishop Schnase challenged us at Minister’s School last week, that we must be both at the center and the margins if we are to be effective in reaching those beyond our church’s walls.

A story worth repeating: Re: “One seventy five, two years, three fifty.” (worship attendance)

In 2002 I flew to Dallas, TX, to attend “Christian Believer” leader training. When I arrived at registration, I noticed a person on the list from Winner, SD, 35 miles from my home town. The registrar told me, “Be careful which table you sit at because that’s the group you will be with for the entire training session.”

I went in, absurdly believing I could recognize somebody from Winner, SD, and finally settled on a table with two adjacent empty chairs. Five minutes later Ross from Winner, SD, came in a sat next to me. The dynamics of the weekend were heightened since J. Ellsworth Kalas was teaching and Ross had recently completed his doctorate with Kalas as his advisor.

As the weekend progressed, I could tell that Ross had something special happening at his Winner (population 3500) church. He said, “When I arrived two years ago, we had 175 in worship. Now we have 350.” (That’s 175, two years, 350!) I said, “You need to tell me.”

“Well, when I arrived the congregation was ready to make a move. We decided to emphasize worship and youth, and to tell everyone, “You don’t have to be an evangelist, you don’t have to be a theologian, all you have to say is ‘I go to church. Church is important to me. Church makes a difference in my life. Won’t you join me this Sunday.’ And then we make sure that worship provides them something to take away.” Ross also told of their community Halloween youth activity that gathered 600 kids!

As it turns out, my step-mom has cousins that live in Winner (Episcopalians). At a Thanksgiving gathering a year later, I asked them, “You need to tell me about Ross.” Their reply was, “Oh, Ross is important not only to the Methodist Church, he’s important to the community.”

Ross’ brother Kyle just happened to be my sister-in-law’s pastor, 35 miles down the road from Winner. Much smaller church, but good growth and the church loved him. I asked about Kyle’s participation in the community. She told me that if there was a game, Kyle was there, if there was a function at the community center, Kyle was there. If there was a funeral at the parlor or another church, Kyle was there. If there was an award ceremony at the courthouse, Kyle is there.

At the center, but even more importantly, at the margins. What do we have to do to have it said of us, “Oh, he’s (she’s) not just important to the Methodist Church, he’s (she’s) important to the community”?

Welcoming Jesus

2009-09-21T09:46:00.006-05:00

Dear Friends. The following sermon, 9/20/09, initiates my Action Plan at Smith Chapel to become a more "Outwardly Focused" church, to lead our congregation to a love for the unchurched in response to School of Lay Ministry 2009 (see link). Please help me be accountable to "Welcoming Christ."

Welcoming Jesus
(Mark 9:30-37)

A. Introduction
1. Focus, Focus, Focus. In this passage, Jesus is focused on teaching his disciples on the way to Jerusalem. To set the stage, Jesus has been north of Galilee, in the region of Caesarea-Philippi. There, Peter has declared Jesus as Messiah (Who do you say that I am? “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God, the one coming into the world.”), and he has begun teaching them that he must go to Jerusalem, be handed over to men, killed, and on the third day rise again. They had no clue. Today’s lesson is the second time he’s told them this. Still no clue. While still in Caesarea-Philippi, Jesus took Peter, James, and John high up on the mountain and there he was transfigured before them, a glimpse of his future glory. God speaks to them saying, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.” Still, the real thrust of Jesus’ ministry is a mystery to the disciples. Now he’s on his way to Jerusalem. Jesus has to teach them. Focus, Focus, Focus. He was teaching his disciples. If the disciples don’t get it now, the mission will be lost. Focus.

2. “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands.” When we hear these words, we need to hear them from two perspectives: First, Mark is conveying what Jesus was telling his pre-Easter disciples. But second, he is writing to a post-Easter world. Mark is being clear that it is human hands, all of humanity who are responsible for the death of Jesus. Not just Judas, although he is there as Jesus teaches, not the Jews, not the Romans, although God allows them to be instruments, but Jesus is betrayed into human hands, Adam’s hands, Eve’s hands, Rick’s hands, Rosemary’s hands. What we did yesterday, what we will do tomorrow. Post-Easter people, Christ died for all of humanity. He died for you and me.

3. But for the pre-Easter disciples this had to be hard. To be killed! Hung from a cross. For the first century Jews, the cross, the cross was a scandal. Yet Jesus had already taught them, if any want to be my disciples, they must take up their cross and follow me. Sacrifice, submission, was necessary to be a follower of Christ. It was then, it is now.

4. But this passage tells us again that they didn’t get it. Jesus says, “What were you arguing about on the way?” They were arguing about who was the greatest among them! Jesus tells them that whoever wants to be first must be last and servant of all. If we are to have ambition, a normal human trait, that ambition must be focused on serving others.

B. Body
1. Then Jesus, the master story teller, the master user of props, takes a child and puts it among them, then puts his arm around the child and says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sent me.” Welcoming Jesus, welcoming God!
a. Understand, that in the first century, children had little or no social status. They fell somewhere between slaves who had none and women who had but some. Children got no respect. In fact, the regard we provide our children today is probably a Christian teaching that flows from this very passage. But in that day, no status.
b. Jesus says, “One who welcomes a person of no status, welcomes me.” Where have we heard that before? Recall Matthew 25, the story of Christ the King, also called the parable of the sheep and the goats? The people say, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you drink? And when was it we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave your clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you? And the King will answer them, “Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.” The least of these, welcoming one like a child. Welcoming Jesus.

2. Whoever wants to be first must be last and servant of all, whoever welcomes one like a child in my name welcomes me. Jesus, destroying the hierarchy of the day (and today) and placing us all in the same circle. Gathering us around Jesus. Then Jesus asking that we make the circle wider and wider. Go, make disciples. Be my witnesses. Welcome one like a child in my name. All of us in the same ever widening circle.

3. I’d like to pause here and talk about us, our circle. Our ever widening. Us welcoming Jesus. How I see Smith Chapel in three to five years.
a. Last week in our meeting after church we introduced two new ministry concepts: Small groups, circles; and an annual or bi-annual neighborhood food drive, serving others. You also received a letter describing the small group series. Now I’d like to give you my vision, how I see this playing out.
b. Let me leap forward to the fall of 2010, a year from now. You’re in the third cycle of small groups. You’re starting to fall into the pattern. In fact, most of you look forward to your weekly meetings. I recall my first Disciple Bible Study: 34 weeks, 2 ½ hours a week, yet I couldn’t wait to get back to my group.
c. The groups include church members, family that may not attend weekly, friends from other churches, neighbors that may or may not attend anywhere, new people that you may want to get to know. All advantages of meeting away from the church. You meet in homes or possibly corner of a restaurant or a meeting room. People will accept an invitation to a home who may not accept an invitation to church.
d. You gather. After greeting, you begin with prayer, maybe recite a Psalm or the words to a hymn. You find the adoration and worship in this setting even greater than you might experience on Sunday morning.
e. You welcome those that are new, who have been invited this week and who have responded, widening your circle. You break bread together as you fellowship and study. In your discussion you hear a new insight, even from one of the new people who may have no background on the topic, but the insight is life changing.
f. Over the course of time you share your lives together, you laugh together, and there are times you cry together and pray together. This is real life and faith.
g. As you close the meeting, you discuss who might be invited to a following meeting. There is always an open chair, always a widening circle. Always an expectation to welcome Christ.
h. You depart, even reluctantly, looking forward to studying and meeting again next week.

4. The seven week session ends. Some of the groups may decide to continue to meet once a month or bi-weekly in the interim between studies. Some may find service projects, nursing homes, food pantry, Festival of sharing, that they want to continue in between. In fact, in getting to know friends and neighbors, new needs of theirs and the community become apparent. You have always been the best at helping your neighbor and you respond.

5. Another session begins the following spring and another the following fall. It may be that the groups have grown and the plan always was to start another group at another time and place to widen the circle and welcome Christ again. A seed group of two couples leaves on group and invites others and another group of six to eight is begun. In five years, what started as 3 or 4 groups is now 6 or 8. Most of the people will never attend Smith Chapel, a few may. They’ll attend other churches, but for some the small group may become the only church they know.

6. In parallel to this, our neighborhood food drive is happening once or twice a year. “When did we see thee hungry and feed thee?” We begin small, dropping off bags and telling folks we’ll be back in two weeks to pick them up. “Oh by the way, we’re a small church and we’re looking for ways to expand our drive, would you like to give a hand?” And we assign a section of road for them and give out them some bags and pick them up. We give them a church brochure to put in each bag and a form to collect names of our neighbors as we go, a name to pray for, a person that we might invite at some future time. All the time we are feeding the hungry, we are welcoming Christ. Each succeeding food drive gets easier and larger as we have developed a call list and assigned roads that we can repeat. The circle gets wider. Smith Chapel becomes important to the neighborhood.
7. Over the course of time a few may extend their faith journey and join us in church, either from the food drives or the small groups.
a. Imagine in 2010, as a result of prayer and study, we ourselves become more faithful and instead of 19 each week, we average 20; and as a result of invitation, one more person
joins—21. Ten percent growth.
b. And in 2011, a net of two more. Now 23.
c. In 2012 and 2013, two families join. And by 2014, five years from now, we’re approaching 30 in worship.

8. We can see ourselves becoming an Acts 2 church (46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (v46-47)).
a. You see, we’re not in this for us, although we may be one of the beneficiaries. We are doing it because we are called to.
b. Through prayer and study, we have gained a vital relationship with Jesus Christ, one that is outwardly focused, one that seeks to ever widen the circle, one that welcomes one like a child, that welcomes Jesus.
c. We’ve become a church that looks at every ministry opportunity as a means of invitation. Because we’ve been sharing our stories together, we’ve more comfortable sharing our faith story with others We seek to welcome Jesus.
d. By the way, small groups and ministries like food drives and others are the very best way to integrate someone into a congregation. Should somebody arrive on a Sunday, and there’s no apparent way for them to participate, to join in, they will probably be gone in week or two. But if instead, we invite them to participate in one our small groups, we expand our circle for them, we will welcome Jesus.

9. That’s 2014. Now back to 2009. I don’t expect that this will happen without some resistance. Even Moses had people grumbling in the desert. It only took 45 days and the Children of Israel were saying, “If only you had left us in Egypt instead of bringing us out into the desert to die.” If Moses had to put up with grumbling I guess I can. But no golden calves. We’ll skip over the golden calves and get to the Ten Commandments, and without breaking the tablets too. Serendipity that we’re starting by studying The Ten Commandments from the Backside.

C. Close.
1. What I’d like to do is keep the vision in front of you. We need to change. Our communities have changed and we need to find a way to ever widen our circle to include them.

2. People of God, the church in America is dying. We’ve missed an entire generation of children. In our denomination, our weekly attendance in America is decreasing 73,000 a year. That’s like closing every church in Kansas and an additional 150 in Nebraska each year. Why, because we’ve been doing church wrong for the past 100 years.

3. Think about this. In the first 300 years of Christianity there were no churches. Christianity was in the midst of the culture. They met in homes and the worshippers increased by 40 percent every decade for those 300 years.

4. In the 18th century the Wesleys looked at the church constrained by the church walls and the church moved to the fields. In America, the great awakening swept across America in homes, in class meetings just like our church began.

5. Since western expansion ended we locked ourselves back in our churches. The depression and the war revived us a little. But by 1960 we’d reach our peak.

6. We need a vision of a church transformed, a vision of a church doing things differently, a vision of a church doing ministry in the midst of our communities.

7. I know the Holy Spirit is moving us to this place. It has been gnawing on me, nudging me for some time. And after I finished up this sermon on Thursday, I found a link to a new survey of the best churches in America published in “USA Today” on Wednesday. Listen to what it says: “The best churches in America are aggressively evangelistic and evangelical, and the very best churches have very intentional systems to move people from sitting in rows to sitting in circles (in small groups).” Hear that word circles, ever widening circles. It continues, “to going out and making a difference in the world.”

8. We need a vision of a church doing ministry differently, of placing ourselves in ever widening circles, and in doing so, of a church that is being servants of all.

9. And a church welcoming one like a child. A church welcoming Jesus. So may it be in your life and in the life of this congregation. Amen.

The Outward Focus of VBS

2009-08-19T09:04:00.011-05:00

Smith Chapel just completed its most successful Vacation Bible School (VBS) ever, "Praise Him." It comes as we are in the middle of a study of Paul Nixon’s book, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church, and VBS was instructional for us. VBS is Smith Chapel’s best bridge event to the community (to use language from School of Lay Ministry) and is the most outwardly focused ministry we have at Smith Chapel. From it we gain lessons that will aid in broadening other ministries.

From the perspective of Nixon’s main points:

Nixon adjures us to “Choose life over death.” We have one active child at Smith Chapel. Two or three others attend once every couple of months. It would be easy to say that the church is dying. We had 18 children at VBS this year! And listen to this: We had 14 on Monday, 16 on Tuesday and 18 on Wednesday! How’s that? That’s life.

Choose Community over Isolation. We began with cards and personal invitations about two months before VBS. We then mailed out over 600 post cards to mail boxes within six miles of the church. I talked to mothers who sent children on days two and three. They had received the post cards and when others came home excited about their day, they were already aware of VBS and did not hesitate to send their children. Sending 600 post cards is something new to our little church, but it is a decision to choose community. Of the 18 kids, five attend Smith Chapel occasionally, the others have their own church homes. But for that week, Smith Chapel was the spiritual center of our rural community.

Choose Fun over Drudgery. We selected a new venue this year because some of our kids were getting older, and we wanted space to “let it out.” (See Frontier over Fortress.) The kids had a ball and so did we just watching them. Recreation required minimal organization and structure for the kids to have fun. I think we too often choose drudgery when we overly structure play time. We chose fun.

And music time. We had a 14 year old dancer as song leader. While structured, the music was great, and the kids responded. The music spoke to me and music time was fun time.

Choose Bold over Mild. Another way we expanded the ministry of our church was to invite those beyond our walls to leadership roles. Kim led Bible study two days and boldly took the opportunity to declare Jesus as the way and to clearly outline for the kids the way to eternal life. It was as if to say, “Some of these kids may only have one chance to hear the good news. I’m not going to miss it.” She was a wonderful teacher, mild in manner, participative in technique, bold in message! The kids will not forget their study with her.

Choose Frontier over Fortress. For our first four years of VBS, we squeezed into our 30 by 50 building and on rainy days overcame stir craziness by bowling down the aisle with tennis balls and water bottles as pins. This year we moved lock, stock and barrel to a multi-purpose facility a half mile away. It was wonderful. Ministry does not have to be limited to “our” space. I’m hoping that the combination of using leadership resources from beyond our walls and other venues that we can find whole new ways of doing a variety of ministries that would be too much for our membership and resources. Frontier!

Choose Now rather than Later. We began VBS five years ago after a 40 year hiatus at Smith Chapel. There were no longer any children. Five years ago, we had only one. A few members asked why bother? We had 13 kids that first year and have had 11 or 12 each year since. Had we said “later,” we would not have had 18 this year no the experience of life, community, fun, boldness and frontier that has ensued.

At School of Lay Ministry I loved Forum Christian Church’s purpose statement, “Intentionally connecting people to Jesus.” That’s what we were doing this week at Smith Chapel. An outwardly focused church plans every event to intentionally leave a chair open and provide a handful of invitations to every member and beyond. We are on our way to choosing life over death.

“Choose life, that you may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days.” Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Somewhere Out There

2009-06-15T08:02:00.007-05:00

Somewhere Out There

(Mark 4:26-32 and 1:38)

This sermon is an integration of the lectionary with stories, primarily from Bishop Schnase, from the Annual Conference of the Missouri UMC. We as a Conference are indebted to the wisdom and leadership of Bishop Schnase and are obligated to pass it on with thanks.

A. Introduction
1. After Easter season, after Pentecost, the church enters a new liturgical season sometimes called by different names. It can be simply, the season after Pentecost and it runs all the way to Advent, about December 1st. The Roman Catholic church and others call it Ordinary time. But it doesn’t mean ordinary. It is derived from the word “ordinal” which means numbered. The Methodist church uniquely calls this period after Pentecost Kingdomtide although the dates are not uniformly agreed with. Whether ordinary time or kingdomtide, the color of the season is green, representing growth, growth in the church, growth in the kingdom. And appropriately, the readings in the Gospel of Mark are Jesus’ parables of the kingdom and growth. You might say stories with a backdrop of green.

2. Some of our previous Sunday’s activities have detracted from our readings in Mark so I’d like to review how Mark got us to Chapter 4. Mark is called the “immediate” Gospel. Things happen quickly and the word immediate or immediately are used 40 times in 16 short chapters.

a. Chapter 1 is a series of rapid fire topics and scenes: v 1 tells us of the good news: “In the beginning, the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God.” (Mk 1:1) By verse 11, Jesus is baptized. In verse 13 he is tempted. By verse 15 he begins his ministry: “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the good news.” (Mk 1:15)
b. Still in chapter 1 he calls the first of his disciples, Peter and Andrew, James and John. He teaches in the synagogue, like one with authority. The scripture notes, “not like the scribes.” Jesus is authority.
c. He casts out spirits. Jesus has authority over the spirit world.
d. Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus has authority over spirits, and he has authority over the flesh.
e. The whole city gathers at the door of the house with their sick and their lame and those who are possessed by demons. Jesus heals them. Jesus casts out their demons. Jesus has authority.

3. Then Jesus prayed. It says, still in chapter 1, “In the morning, while it was still dark, he got up and went out and prayed.” (Mk 1:35) The greatest man who ever walked, Jesus who was part of the Godhead, Jesus who was divine, in fact God, derived his strength, his power, from relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit through prayer. That is good news for us. Jesus went out to a deserted place and there he prayed. We too can pray, we too can derive our strength from prayer.

4. When the disciples found him saying, “Everyone is searching for you,” almost as though he had clarified his mission with God through prayer, he says to them, “Let us go to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came to do.” (Mk 1:38) “Let us go to.. for that is what I came to do.” Go to, to proclaim the good news. The NIV says, “let us go somewhere.” Somewhere out there. “Let us go somewhere out there to the neighboring villages. Jesus was a ‘go to’ guy, a ‘somewhere out there’ kind of guy. “For that is what I came to do.”

a. And somewhere out there, he healed the lepers and the paralytics; he forgave sins. He proclaimed himself Lord of the Sabbath. He cast out demons. He declared power over Satan himself and began in Chapter 4 to tell the parables of the kingdom.

b. At the beginning of chapter 4, he tells the parable of the sower. He might have begun it by saying, “Somewhere out there, a sower went out to sow.”

c. You know the story, the seeds represent the word of God. Some fall on the path, the birds, Satan, comes and takes them away before they can take root. Some fall on rocky soil and they spring up but they have little root and when persecution arises, they whither and fall away. Some fall among the thorns and the cares of life choke them out.

d. But some, some, somewhere out there, some of the seeds fall on good soil and they hear the word, they respond to Jesus and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, a hundred fold.

5. Jesus, somewhere out there proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God and telling the disciples of the fruit of the good news. And in today’s short parables, telling them that it would grow with great mystery like seed that germinates, we know not how, that sprouts, we know not how, that grows, we know not how, then puts out fruit and creates a harvest, we know not how. He tells us the harvest is the product of going to, of casting seed somewhere out there. God can do mysterious, miraculous things, but he needs someone to go to, to go to somewhere out there.

B. Body
1. The Annual Conference began with music by a group from Church of the Shepherd in St. Charles. The worship leader, a young man named Brandon Salter, told his story. He had grown up in a broken abusive home, no father by six, no mother by 12, on his own by 16. By his early 20s he’d landed in a number of night spots in the St. Charles area playing his guitar, entertaining the crowds. Over a number of months a pastor by the name of Bob Farr would come in and ask if he’d like to lead worship at his church. The last thing he wanted to do. He had not grown up in the church. He knew little about the church, but Bob persisted. Finally, when he was 26 he accepted the job. And at the age of 28 he gave his life to Christ. Today, he’s been married with two wonderful children and here he was leading worship at Annual Conference with 1500 United Methodists. Mysterious. Like the mustard seed cast upon the ground, scattered somewhere out there.
a. God at work in the sowing
b. God at work in the growing
c. God at work in the nesting
d. God at work in the harvesting.

2. Jesus saying, “Let us go to the neighboring towns and villages to proclaim the good news there, for that is what I came to do.” Going to, scattering seed, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, and Bob Farr, the voice of Jesus today, bearing fruit in the life of Brandon Salter, somewhere out there.
a. Bob Farr wasn’t alone. God was at work too, preparing the soil, going before us, what we Methodists call prevenient grace, that grace that nudges us before we even know it. It happened with Brandon Salter, it happens with others too.
b. On Sunday morning, 8 young pastors told how they talked about their faith with others. One, Terry Cook, was older, had come to Christ in his late 30s and was now in his 40s, working as a pastor in a rural setting. He said that two incidents, early in his ministry led him to understand that God was always working mysteriously ahead of him, preparing the soil.
c. Soon after he was appointed to a church, he was called by one of his parishioners and told that they needed to go pray with a man that had just gotten out of the hospital. He was not a church member, but had just had a large tumor removed from his abdomen and he was in need of prayer. They went. He and his driver sat for sometime in the driveway praying before they knocked at the door. The man came to the door clutching a pillow over the area of the surgery. He was known to be an alcoholic that had obviously led a hard life. They went in. As they sat down, Terry felt compelled to ask the man “Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ?” The man burst into tears. He told them that when he was preparing to leave the hospital, the chaplain had come by and told him to get ready, that within two days two men would come by and one of them would ask him if he had a relationship with Jesus Christ. Grace, God at work in the sowing, God at work in the growing.
d. The second Terry Cook story was similar. He had been appointed to a rural church and soon thereafter was driving down a country road and saw a couple sitting on their porch. He pulled in to introduce himself and asked, “I just thought I’d ask if you have a home church?” They replied, “We were just talking about that when you drove up.” Grace, God at work in the sowing, God at work in the growing. God at work, nudging the birds to make nests in the branches.
e. God going before us. “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.” Somewhere out there someone. Terry Cook came along, the ‘go to’ guy, the ‘go to’ instrument of Jesus Christ, nurturing the growth and preparing for the harvest.

3. Monday morning at 8:00 was the Bishop’s teaching session, always a highlight. And before we finished the morning with the fixing of appointments for another year, we heard a sermon by Emanuel Cleaver, one of the top 10 preachers in America, and he showed us why. Wonderful, but it was the Bishop’s teaching hour that I want to share with you.
a. He began by telling us that our system of evangelism, the way we now scatter seed is broken. Our system of opening the church doors and waiting for people to come no longer works. It was a product of post WWII where returning men and women flocked to churches that had been established in the late 19th and early 20th century, the heyday of the Methodist movement, the time we were the shouting Methodists and the evangelists. That system of opening the doors and waiting no longer works.
b. Bishop Schnase remarked that evangelism takes place at the margins, not in the center of our groups, not in the middle of our churches, but at the margins.
Bob Farr had told us a year ago that we always needed to be out there where the people are developing relationships that allow us to make invitations.Bishop Schnase describes this as the margins. He said that we are all in danger of keeping company with people just like us. That it would be especially easy for him to talk to, to associate with only people of faith, with only Methodists for that matter, especially in the job of Bishop. And especially when the Bishop describes himself as an extreme introvert, not a Bob Farr who feels compelled to talk with just about anybody, Bob Farr, an extreme extrovert, the Bishop is just the opposite. Kind of explains why when Bishop Schnase and I meet, there is an exchange of smiles and not much more. Two introverts passing in the hallway don’t have a lot of conversation between them. So how does he stay at the margins during his travels, his major occupation, a traveling man? How does the conversation take place? Bishop Schnase relayed a couple of stories:
c. He often ends up at rental car agencies. The young man filling out the paperwork asked his occupation. Now the Bishop says he never tells anyone he meets he’s a Bishop. Never. If he does, the first reaction is, “Oh, I didn’t know the Methodists had bishops.” The second is, “And what does a bishop do?” He doesn’t want to have to get into a 20 minute conversation trying to justify his existence, so he says, “I work for the United Methodist Church.” In this case the young man said, “I used to go to the United Methodist Church.” After the paperwork was finished, the Bishop asked, “Just out of curiosity, do you still go to church?” “No, my fiancé is a different denomination and we just haven’t settled that yet.” I can hear a pause, then “What kind of music do you like?” “There are a couple of Methodist churches in the area that I might recommend. I think you might be pleasantly surprised.”About that time a man emerged from the back, the young man’s supervisor. Upon seeing Bishop Schnase, he said, “You’re the bishop!” Startled, the mask removed, Bishop Schnase said, “Yes, but how did you know?” “You came and preached at our church earlier in the year.” He went on to recount all of his involvement in and dedication to the church. The bishop then noted, “Did you know that Jim over here used to go to the Methodist Church?” The answer of course was no. They had worked together for three years. Three years. And matters of faith had never arisen. They had never spoken at the margins. Yet, the conversation between the Bishop and the young man had begun by simply saying, “I’m a United Methodist.”
d. The second Bishop story of ministry at the margins: On one of his trips the Bishop got stuck (remember he’s an introvert), got stuck going to a fancy reception at a big hotel. Not his cup of tea. Pastors and their wives from the area were all there. The Bishop was standing outside the circle, kinda’ with his back against the wall when he noticed one of the servers with a tray of hors devoirs doing about the same. Not conducive to long term job growth.Bishop Schnase went over to take a sample. He figured the man to be about 40 and one who had taken the long way around to get there. The server said, “What kind of gathering is this?” In his smooth way, Bishop Schnase said, “What do you think?” “Insurance?” He wanted to reply, “So to speak, long term insurance,” but told him it was a gathering of United Methodist pastors and their wives.” “Oh, I grew up in the Methodist church.” “How did that go for you?” “In trouble all the time.” “Which church?” He replied, said his mother might still be a member there. He hadn’t gone for a long time. “Your pastor is here, part of this group, would you like to meet? But before that, would you like to guess which one it might be?” “That one?” as he pointed to a retired pastor there with a walker. Gives you an indication of how he recalled or thought of the church. “No, no, let me introduce you.” When he introduced him to her, an attractive 35 year old, she caught on instantly to what was going on and wrapped him in delightful conversation.
e. Points? Bishop Schnase would like to be able to say that both these stories had great outcomes. He doesn’t know. But somewhere out there God has prepared a person for conversation, not even an invasive conversation, but one that may begin, “I go to church, church is important to me, church makes a difference in my life.” It would be nice if the conversation might end, “Won’t you join me this Sunday?”

C. Close.
1. Bishop Schnase closed his learning period by asking how we have gone from being the “go to” Methodists, to becoming the “wait for” Methodists? Remember Jesus said, “Let us go to, go to the neighboring towns and villages.” Not “Let’s wait for.” Where did we lose the “go to” instinct that grew the church in the 18th and 19th centuries, that made us known as the evangelists?

2. When the Bishop moved from Texas, one of the things he researched was how Methodism got started in Missouri. It was those Illinois people. Those Illinois people who even before Missouri was officially a territory of the United States, even when the French had declared it illegal to hold protestant services here, came anyway, even when threatened with arrest. They came in boats across the river, the wide river, the deep river, the flowing river, the dangerous river. They held services in the evening and returned back to Illinois before daylight. As soon as the Purchase was complete, they established a Methodist church here as early as 1804. How did we lose our “go to” instinct?

3. Jesus said, “Let us go to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the good news there also, for that is what I came to do.” And he tells us stories of the kingdom, stories of growth, stories with a backdrop of green. Stories of grace.

4. Somewhere out there, there is a person who has been nudged by grace, waiting for someone to go to them and join in a conversation. One which might end, “I go to church, church is important to me, church makes a difference in my life. Won’t you join me this Sunday?”

5. Now, go to it. Amen.

History: Sermon Given at Smith Chapel's 175 Anniversary Celebration

2009-06-01T05:18:00.008-05:00

History
(Acts 10:34-48)

A. Introduction
1. Good morning, my name is Dikerson Smith and I’d like to welcome you to my home and the regular meeting of our Methodist Meeting Society. You see, we don’t have a church building, we meet in homes. We don’t have a church building and that’s fine. Our spiritual ancestors began that way. Some say the mother church had lost its way because once churches were built, it stayed within the confines of the church walls. John Wesley, the founder of Methodist, changed all that when he created meeting societies. The fervor of the church, the purpose of the church, was reestablished when Christianity moved out of churches and back into the homes and hills. When Christianity meets in homes, it is not just about religion, it is about the way we live.

2. And we live with purpose. We know our purpose. If anyone was to ask a meeting society just about anywhere, “What is your mission?” the response would be clear. It is to “Reform the nation, especially the church, and spread Scriptural holiness across the land.” And we believe it. I was told the other day that here in 1834 that one third of all church going people in America were Methodists. That’s a testament to the preachers, circuit riders, lay people, societies, and just plain Methodists all across America. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to change people, and He’s changed us.

3. (Take off hat--part of 19th century costume) To step out of character a minute, and I’ll be moving in and out of character quite a lot, I’m not sure how Mr. Smith would have sounded in 1834. There were lot’s of people of English and Scottish decent that settled the area. Still are. But many of them came from Tennessee and Kentucky. In fact, a generation earlier, Kit Carson’s parents had moved to this area from Kentucky. Don’t know what influence Appalachia might have had on the dialect or how much influence there might have been from the Deep South. Suffice it to say, I’ll be talking with good ole Midwestern as best I can.

4. And if you want to know what the folks might have been wearing, a look at a “Little House on the Prairie” rerun might be in order. I’d be wearing bib overalls except I would be able to show off my Pentecost suspenders.

5. (Put on hat.) Anyway welcome to the Smith family home. You all have made a significant effort to get here, harnessing the horse and buggy, riding 30 minutes to an hour. And you’ll be repeating that after the meeting is over. Your faith, your friends are important to you. And it continued that way. Louise’s husband, Charles, told me that when he was two weeks old, that was 1919, his parents bundled him up in the wagon and brought him to church. He attended here all his life. Ollie, I don’t suppose it was much different when your dad was born 50 years earlier, 1873, the family boarding the wagon and off to church or gathering. An hour of preparation and travel before. An hour of travel and putting the horse up after. Your faith was important to you. Still is. That’s why we’ve been here 175 years.

6. The Methodist church grew up in homes as meeting societies, outside of a church, and neighbors of many denominations might have been invited, even a few Baptists. Wesley’s grace-filled, free-will, simple theology had wide appeal. Even after chapels and churches had been built, the meeting societies, those home meetings continued and were essential to the faith. It was around the table that faith was experienced, where Scriptures were learned, where people told the truth in love to one another. In a place like Howard County, Missouri, in 1834, where 25 percent of the population at that time was slave; more than likely it was around the table or in hearing shot of the kitchen, where men and women, slave and free learned faith. It was the Methodist Meeting Society.

B. Body
1. I can imagine the fervor of those who gathered around the table. And although it was 40 years later that this song appeared, as they gathered, something like this might have been sung.
a. (Blessed Assurance.)
b. Let us pray.

2. At this point in the meeting it would have been time for Scripture and exhortation. Remember now, our purpose was to reform the nation and spread Scriptural holiness across the land. I can think of few better stories than the first record of the giving of the Holy Spirit to the gentiles. Peter is called in a vision to go to the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, a gentile. Peter takes the opportunity to tell the good news of Jesus Christ. (Acts 10:34-48a).

3. The good news of Jesus Christ is for all. The gift of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s presence, God’s presence with us may be the story of Pentecost, but the purpose of Pentecost is the gift of the Holy Spirit to all, all that believe of every nation and race. We see that in this Scripture. And it is with the power of the Holy Spirit that reformation takes place. It is with the power of the Holy Spirit that Scriptural holiness is spread across the land. It is with the power of the Holy Spirit that we come to understand that the good news is for all.

4. Paul tells us that there is no distinction in Jesus Christ, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Ro 3.22); and there is no distinction among those saved by Jesus Christ: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3.28)There is no distinction. “Christ is all and in all.” (Col 3.11b)
a. What great news this was to Cornelius and his household. In his house we had Jew and Greek, commander and servant, master and slave. In them all, Christ is all and in all.
b. And what great news for those of us who gather here in rural America in 1834. There is no longer male or female, slave or free. The Holy Spirit descends upon us all. Christ is all and in all. Glory be to God. Amen.

5. After the singing, Scripture and short exhortation, the conversation around the table got down to the real things in life. Are we living as faithful disciples of Christ in a way that brings salvation to us and witness to others? Are we being true to our purpose to bring reformation to the nation, to the church, and to spread Scriptural holiness across the land? Part of meeting together is to hold ourselves accountable, to watch over one another in Christian love.
a. The first and most important question we would ask of one another is “How is the state of your soul?” In other words, “How are you fairing on your spiritual journey?” Since all of us are in a different place in our faith walk, the answer would be varied as is the advice each might receive to strengthen their souls. How is the state of your soul?
b. All are expected to open themselves to grace. If we want to receive grace, we need to put ourselves in a place to receive it. If we want an apple to drop into our lap, we need to at least walk in the orchard. So Wesley taught we need to immerse ourselves in grace through acts of mercy and acts of piety. Acts of mercy: ways of loving our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the lonely. Acts of piety, ways of loving God, praying, reading Scripture, listening to exhortation, taking communion, fasting, participating in Christian conversation. How are we doing? How are we doing immersing ourselves in grace?
c. A third area of discussion would be “How are we doing abiding by the general rules of societies.?” The general rules, three of them.
d. We had a sermon series earlier this year on Wesley’s Three Simple Rules, based on a book by retired Bishop Reuben Job who based his book on Wesley’s rules for societies. There are a few copies in the back if you would like to explore more (See Jan 2009 Blogs). The rules are to first, do no harm, avoid evil of every possible sort. I’ve always thought it interesting that Wesley chose this rule to be first, do no harm. Harm can almost never be undone. Doing harm can be forgiven, yes; but the consequences of harm can almost never be undone. First do no harm. Have you done harm this week? Have you engaged in any evil practice? Anything by deed or example that might harm the soul of another? First, do no harm.
e. Second, do good. “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” As the Bible says, “Never grow weary of doing good.” How are you doing? Wesley fought hard against what he called the enthusiastic doctrine of devils, that is the practice of only doing good when we felt like it. How are we doing in doing good?
f. The third general rule of societies, in simple terms is staying in love with God. Wesley said “Following the ordinances of God.” After all, Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Jesus prayed, Jesus read Scripture, Jesus went to Synagogue to worship each Sabbath, Jesus gave us Holy Communion, Jesus fasted, Jesus engaged in holy conversation with his disciples and others. How are we doing in staying in love with God? The purpose of the meeting societies was to hold one another accountable in Christian love. “What sins have you committed, have you done harm? Let us pray for forgiveness. What good have you done? How can I help? How is your prayer life? What can I suggest?”

6. This sharing and fellowship most took place around a table, most likely as part of a meal or a tradition called the love feast. There was seldom an ordained minister there so that rather than Holy Communion, the tradition of the love feast was used. The love feast reaches all the way back to the house churches in Paul’s day and was revived in Wesley’s time. It’s part of our current Book of Worship but not often used. The love feast was an important part of early American Methodism. I’m sure it was part of the Smith Meeting Society. Rather than communion elements, bread and wine, crackers, sweet bread, some other simple element might be used. As we talk, I’m going to have the kids pass out these rice chex among you. Take one and hold it. We’ll get to it in a moment. They’re glutton free if that is a concern.a. As the sweet bread, or crackers or chex were passed from person to person, praise or Scripture or prayer might be offered spontaneously: Praise, “I will love the Lord my God with my whole heart.” Scripture: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.” Prayer, “Gracious God, have mercy on me a sinner.” Spontaneous, simple, heart-felt, maybe even song, “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer’s praise, the glory of our God and king the triumph of his grace.” The Holy Spirit with us in the feast. Think now as you eat your chex, what is on your heart in praise or song or prayer of Scripture? Savor it. What is the Spirit testifying through you.
b. And rather than wine, water, tea or cider might have been used. And as the water or cider was passed, and it might have been in a two handled loving cup, testimony might be given. Where have you seen God at work in your lives or in the life of others this week? What does your salvation mean to you? What has God done in the world this week to reform the nation or to spread Scriptural holiness across the lan? What is your testimony? What do you offer for the uplifting of others as the loving cup is passed?

7. It is now time to pray (hat removed for prayer). For this time, let us pray together the prayer that Jesus taught us. And for this time, let us do so with eyes wide open, with chins up, looking into the eyes of others. Remembering that for Jesus, God was "Daddy," "Abba"; that the heaven where God resides can be as close as the air we breath, as close as our skin; that we have Father who hears our prayers, who listens to us, who meets our daily needs, who forgives our sins when we go to Him. Think about what the words mean to each of us. Let us pray: “Our Father…

8. Now let us lift our voices once again in assurance. (“This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.”)

C. Close
1. The meeting is over. (Remove hat.) 175 years have come and gone since the founders of Smith Chapel began meeting in the Smith family home. Such different times yet so many things remain the same. We have the same good news, a God who loves and gave himself for us. We have the same command, to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. We have the same rules, to first do no harm, to do good, to stay in love with God. And we have the same need to share our faith with one another, to hold one another accountable, to inquire as to the health of our souls.

2. We have the same need to reform the nation, especially the church, and the same need to spread Scriptural holiness across the land, maybe even more so.

3. Somewhere out there, to use a phrase of our bishop. Somewhere out there, there is a soul that needs to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. That needs to know that there is no distinction in Christ Jesus, for all are one in Christ Jesus. That the gift of the Holy Spirit is for all. There is no distinction, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, there is no distinction. Grace, grace is free to all.

4. People of Smith Chapel, today is our birthday, today is the birthday of our church. The greatest gift you can give the church is to be church, is to be the body of Christ in someone’s life. To reform the nation one person at a time, to spread Scriptural holiness across the land one person at a time. Happy birthday church. Now, go and be church. So may it be in all of your lives. Amen.

Fifth Secret: Give More Than You Take

2009-04-05T23:51:00.004-05:00

Five: Give More Than You Take
(2 Cor 8:9; Mark 11:1-11; 14:3-11)

A. Introduction
1. Jesus had been traveling for weeks and weeks, maybe months on his way to Jerusalem. And it comes down to this week. While still high on the mountains of Syria, what the Bible calls Caesarea Philippi, way north of Israel, he had told his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, be betrayed into human hands, be killed, and on the third day rise again. It had come down to this day: Jesus was entering Jerusalem to give himself to the world, to give himself to you. Jesus was a giver. And two days later we hear the story of Jesus at the house of Simon the Leper and of the woman with alabaster flask and her extravagant gift to Jesus, so extravagant that Jesus says, “Whenever the good news is proclaimed… what she has done will be told in remembrance of her”--then there was Judas.

2. This week we are concluding a sermon series, “Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die.” Today, Palm Sunday, we are discovering the fifth and final and maybe the most important secret to a full and rewarding life: Give more than you take. Author John Izzo concludes his discussion of the secret with this: “When we give more than we take we connect ourselves to a story bigger than ourselves. And in the act of doing so, happiness finds us.” (p 114)

3. We know that the happiness Izzo describes are blessings from God. The Deuteronomist told us “10 Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.” (15:10). Happiness will find you.
And Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.” (2 Cor 9:6-9). The blessings of God will find you.

4. God made us to be givers. And he modeled how we are to live as givers, how we are to find happiness as givers, how we are to be blessed as givers. It has been so since the beginning:
a. God created the universe for our pleasure and gave us dominion over his creation. We are stewards of his creation. As stewards we are givers, and we are connected to a much, much bigger story. Our stewardship links us to the past and connects us to the future. Giving as stewards of God’s creation connects us to the bigger story.
b. And we are connected also to the “Greatest Story Ever Told.” We are connected to the gift of God’s Son, “who though he was rich, gave of himself and became poor for our sake, so that by his poverty we could become rich.” (2 Cor 8:9) We are connected to the greatest story ever told, the greatest act of giving, the ultimate act of giving, and it models how we are to live and give.

B. Body
1. The Bible talks about the blessings of giving and the dangers of clutching as much as any other topic. Our Gospel stories today are about Jesus, the giver, and Judas, the clutcher. Jesus who said, “13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) Then there was Judas who said, “Give me 30 pieces of silver in exchange for my friend.” Giving. Clutching. “He who sows abundantly, reaps abundantly. (2 Cor 9:6) Giving. “He who sows the wind and reaps the whirlwind.” (Hosea 8:7) Clutching.

2. One of Author Izzo’s wise elders was a barber, Ken, from Iowa. (p 99) Barbers, like beauticians and others that perform personal service, become priests to many, and Ken was a priest to many over the course of 40 years. Ken noted that over the years that he’d attended a great many funerals. He said, “What I have noticed is that there are ten-minute funerals and there are ten-hour funerals. Some people live a life that touches so many people in a positive way that people just want to hang around and talk about that person’s life. Other people live a more self-focused life and this does not seem to happen.” He added, “It seems to me you should live your life as if you want a ten-hour funeral.”

3. What is it that gives life meaning? What is it that makes a life worthy of a ten-hour funeral? What gives life meaning and purpose? Why do some people live full and fruitful lives, lives of meaning and purpose and some not want to live at all?
a. Viktor Frankl was a Viennese psychiatrist who survived the holocaust to include three years in Auschwitz. There he saw people who survived every indignity that one could experience and yet lived, and he saw others who gave up, who did not want to live at all.
b. His search became, why do some people give up and others go on? His answer, published in his classic book, Man’s Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 1959), was that those who believe the world expects something of them have something to live for and find meaning. Those who expect the world owes them something do not. Sounds funny doesn’t it? It seems the opposite of what we might expect. Those for whom the world expects them to give, live to be givers and find meaning. Those who are takers do not.
c. That expectation of giving, that giving could be the care of a child, the teaching of a class, the writing of a book, the creating great art. The giving could be as simple as love for another. But when Frankl’s people knew it was expected of them, they knew they were expected to give love, it gave life meaning and in Izzo’s words, “happiness found them.” I would say they were blessed. “Give liberally…and the Lord will bless you.”

4. We find meaning in giving what is expected of us.
a. Our expectation begins with God. Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment. He replied with an expectation. He said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” (Matthew 22:37-39)
b. We are expected to give love, or as we said in our third secret, the third secret we must discover before we die, we are expected to “become love,” to choose to be a loving person. First to love ourselves, then to love those closest to us, and then to love those we might encounter. All the while we are expected to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our minds. We do that by giving him our obedience, by becoming disciples of his Son, Jesus Christ. We are expected to give love.
c. And in return? On of my favorite Scriptures is Luke 6:38, I think because of its imagery. It says: “38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” Give and it will be given to you—good measure—pressed down—shaken together---running over. You will be blessed.

5. Giving to God, loving God, comes in terms of both service and stewardship.
a. One of Izzo’s wise elders from the Jewish tradition told of how he was taught charity, what is called Tzedakah or righteous giving. (p 105) He said his family had several boxes near the entrance to their house, Tzedakah boxes. Each box was for a different charity. Each night when his father came home, he would drop coins in each of the boxes as an example to his family and so they knew what charities they were giving to.
b. Here’s a picture of one kind of Tzedakah box. This one was inspired by the Biblical book of Ruth, sometimes called the “Song of Songs for Charity.” It’s decorated with barley emblematic of the grain that Ruth gleaned from the field of Boaz. The Jewish sages in explaining the book of Ruth say that “More than the owner does for the poor, the poor does for the owner.” Of course we know that Boaz found happiness with Ruth. They were blessed and in giving were connected to a much greater story. They became the grandparents of King David, and of the linage of Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the King of Givers. Through their giving to one another, they became blessed.

6. Author Stephen Covey has been one of my gurus over the years. He has much to say about service and giving. In his book Principle-Centered Leadership (Summit Books, 1990) he talks about how giving of our service and resources frees us:
a. First, it frees us from greed and materialism: He says, “In order to overcome the worldly restraints of unbridled aspiration and ambition, resolve to dedicate our talents and resources to noble purposes and to provide service to others.” (p 53)
b. He warns of an attitude of “what’s in it for me?” (remember clutching) He warns that if we clutch that “we will have no sense of stewardship—the idea that we don’t own anything, that you give your life to higher principles, causes, and purposes.” (p 53) Give, the operative word of stewardship, give.
c. Then Covey tells us, “We should look at every economic transaction as a test of our moral stewardship.” (p 54)
d. If we approach the way we live with humility, believing that we own nothing, but everything we have is a gift from God given to us in trust, we will know that giving is expected of us, and we will give more than we take.
e. Every economic transaction is a test of our moral stewardship--Giving more that we take.

7. Another guru has much to say about giving. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, you’ve heard of him. One of his most famous sermons, “The Use of Money,” 10 pages, fine print, is often summarized as “earn all you can, so you can save all you can, so you can give all you can.”
a. Earn all you can. Of course he means through righteous means. In Wesley’s day, slave trading would be out. Today, human trafficking would be out. Drug trafficking would be out. Anything that harms or diminishes another would be out. Earn all you can.
b. Save all you can. Practice wise stewardship. Every economic transaction is a test of our moral stewardship.
c. So you can give all you can--for it is all God’s. Wesley did not ask for a vow of poverty but recognized that our own and our family’s needs had to be provided for in prudent ways. Then what ever was left we are able to give to the household of faith and to all, recognizing we are God’s stewards.
d. Interesting that Wesley viewed charity in much the same way that Izzo’s wise elders viewed love. It was to be bestowed first on self, then on those closest to us, and finally on those we will encounter. Love and charity. Those words of giving have been together before.
e. We are givers rather that takers in stewardship. We are givers rather than takers in love. We are givers rather than takers in charity.

8. A common thread in “giving more that you take” is the understanding that we are connected to something much larger than ourselves and that gives life significance. We can walk outside and look at the stars as Abraham was told to do, and even in the face of the vastness of it all, making us seem so small, we can say “that too was made for me.” We are connected. We are significant, we have purpose because we are part of a much larger entity. We find meaning as part of that entity by giving. That is expected of us. We are expected to give and by so doing lose ourselves in the vastness of it all, lose ourselves in the greater story.

9. That may be what Jesus had in mind when we said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?”
a. Takers risk losing their lives.
b. Givers lose themselves in the larger story, connected to Jesus Christ, and receive the blessing of eternal life.
c. Izzo in a television interview said it in another way: “What we take from this world dies with us. What we give goes on forever.” (Biography Channel, 2007)

C. Close
1. Five Secrets: “Be true to yourselves, no regrets, become love, live the moment, give more than you take.” Author Izzo closes his book by telling us it is never too early and never too late to learn and practice the five secrets.
a. Some of the wise elders had seemed to be born with wisdom and had practiced them all of their lives. Others had come late to it.
b. But he says, even if only practiced for a year, “a year lived wisely can erase years of regret.” (p 143)
c. One listener who talked to Izzo remorsefully after realizing terrible regret in the way he had failed to love his family. He empathized with him as he saw tears streaming down his cheeks. Then Izzo recalled and related an old Chinese proverb: “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” (p143)

2. Jesus told the parable of the laborers in the vineyard that the owner called at different times during the day, one being employed by the owner in the last hour of the day. In the end, their recompense was the same. The best time to give your life to Jesus is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

3. Give more than you take. Be connected to the greatest story ever told. Give you life to Jesus and in so doing the blessings of eternity will find you. Amen.

**Izzo, John. The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publications, Inc., 2008.