Thanksgiving Message

“Your faith has made you well.” Jesus does not make a big deal out of the healing of these ten men. What he does seem concerned about is the men’s response to their healing. Only one man comes back to give thanks to Jesus. A man who is a foreigner and loathed by the Jewish people is the only one to come back to Jesus, a Jew, and thank him for healing him of leprosy. And the way he expresses his thanks!

This man does not shake Jesus’ hand in a dignified way like you often see two men do. The Samaritan did not come walking up with his head down and mumble his appreciation half-heartedly. He came back, praising God in a loud voice and then he THREW himself at Jesus’ feet. These are the actions of a man full of praise for the one who has healed him of his affliction. He not only praises God, he throws his whole body, his whole being into giving thanks for the one who has delivered him from this awful torment.

Jesus looks down at this man at his feet. Does he feel amazement that only one returned? Is he angry, confused, or saddened? We do not know because the author does not tell us Jesus’ emotions as he says the words “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”.  We do not know what Jesus felt, but we know how he responded to the thanksgiving and praise of the Samaritan, “Your faith has made you well.”

Jesus is not speaking of the man’s leprosy because that affliction had already been healed. No, Jesus was telling the Samaritan that his actions, the way he turned toward Jesus and gave thanks to God, had made him well in mind and soul, as well as body.

His action of turning around – It is often the way we describe repentance. We turn our backs on our sinful life and accept Jesus as our Lord. It is the movement of our whole person, initiated by God’s graceful work, a redirection toward God. “Your faith made you well.” This outcast, this hated foreigner has become a member of Jesus Christ’s family by turning away from his old ways and turning instead toward the Lord.

Salvation and healing are intertwined just as a life of faith must include thanksgiving to God. God’s work makes a human being whole, makes them sound in every way and reconciled to God and people. The Samaritan’s actions of throwing himself at Jesus’ feet and giving thanks, demonstrates a completeness of faith because it includes thankfulness. It is not dutiful obedience that has made this man fall to Jesus’ feet in thankful praise, but it is because it feels like the right response to what Jesus has done for him.

A couple of years ago I was visiting an elderly woman in a nursing home. Most days this woman was a joy to visit because of her cheerful disposition.  She told me at times that the only thing that ever made her sad was how little her family came to visit, especially her niece who only lived a few miles away. I always commiserated with her and we would pray about it. So this day I came to see her, I expected the same cheerful woman I always saw. But today every word I said to her seemed to bring her to tears and every time I would ask about her friends and family she would put her head down and say nothing at all.

I knew something was really wrong. Finally, she confessed that her family had not called, written, or been by in months. This was the longest they had ever been neglectful and now the holidays were approaching. Holidays are dreadfully lonely for people in nursing homes with no family. And here was this wonderful woman who had a family, but still sat alone.

She told me she wanted to be happy again. She wanted to let go of this sadness. She asked me what she could do to change the way she felt. At first, I began to offer advice on how to get them to visit. I suggested writing a card saying, “I miss you, it’s been awhile.” And things like that. Then I realized that this would not change how she felt in the least, especially if it did not work.

Finally, the Holy Spirit must have whispered loudly in my ear because all of a sudden I heard myself say, “Maggie, you must give thanks!” She looked at me oddly and I said again, “We will give thanks for what you DO have and it will help you. Go on, give thanks!”

She began with, “Well, I suppose I’m grateful to be alive… even though my knees give me such terrible pain. And I’m grateful for the people that do visit.. even if it isn’t my family. And I’m grateful for the money my nephew sends.. even though I’d prefer he come here to give it to me in person.” Then she paused and I had to laugh. She thought she was giving praise, but she was putting conditions on her thanksgiving. This was not anything like what the Samaritan with leprosy had done! So I urged her to begin again with real joys in her heart. What brought a smile to her face even when she was blue?

That’s when she finally said, “I thank God for the 60 years with my husband. He was my rock. I’m grateful for my children who never once got into trouble. I’m grateful for all the people who helped my husband build our home and I’m grateful for the people that take care of me here. I’m grateful for the birds in spring that sit at my window and for the cat that comes to cuddle with me in the winter.”

After saying all of that, Maggie smiled. Her heart had lightened when she realized how much she truly did have to be grateful for. Her faith was restored; her mind renewed because she realized that the only way to stay faithful and happy was to give thanks.

It’s such a simple thing – saying thank you. But we never do it enough. This Thanksgiving I hope that you will give thanks for all the blessings God has given to you. Remember that a life of faith is lived through a life of constant thanksgiving.

Amen.

The Least of These

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Matthew 25: 31-46

In the early Palestinian days, in places like Nazareth where Jesus grew up, shepherds looked after their sheep and goats together. They were a mixed flock of animals that were cared for all in the same way. They were given the same food, given the same time to wander freely and then at night, the shepherd would separate them. The sheep liked the cool, night air and so they were allowed to roam, but the goats with less covering enjoyed being in a warm place.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 that when he comes to earth once more, he, our Shepherd, will separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep will be on his right and the goats on his left. We have heard Jesus tell us in other places that we are a mixed group of people, some who follow God and those who ignore God. The parable of the wheat and the tares comes quickly to mind. But this is the only place in Matthew where Jesus talks about what will happen after we are separated, those on the right and those on the left.

Jesus turns to the sheep and says they have been blessed by God and will be given an inheritance like no other – they will enter the Kingdom of God. Then he turns to those goats and he says that they are cursed and must depart from him and their reward is the eternal fire that God has prepared for the devil and his angels.

God is speaking of serious consequences. This is not something to be shrugged off and put aside to think about for another day. Today is the only day that matters. And TODAY God is telling us something important. There are three things Jesus is trying to teach us in this parable.

The first lesson is about God. Many of us have our own ideas about God and that’s okay. Our Lord is a God of many characteristics. That being said, we must pay close attention to the God that Jesus is always trying to share with us because if anyone knew what God is like it would have to be Jesus who is one with God.

Jesus tells us that God is not a remote being sitting enthroned on heaven as he looks down upon his subjects. Instead, Jesus’ parable tells us that God is here, smack dab in the middle of our lives. God is present in the midst of our family squabbles; God is there in the ER as we wait for news of the birth of our baby or the death of a loved one. God is here when we fight with our spouse and feel completely alone. God is here with us when we fail to meet the demands we make on ourselves and God is with us in the moments of laughter we share around the table, in the moments where we watch our children take their first steps or we teach them to ride a bike. God is here – in the messy, uncomfortable, and ambiguous moments that control our lives.

The second lesson Jesus is teaching us is about religion. Jesus condemns the goats because they did not have compassion on those less fortunate than themselves. He said, “When I was sick, when I was hungry, when I was thirsty, when I was in prison, you helped me”. Many people treat their religious beliefs as an excuse to act and say things against other people. They use their religion as a shield, a barrier, and a crutch. Terrible things are done in the name of God. This happens in every religion, and it has happened in Christianity quite a bit.

We pretend that it is only Muslims who have a radical side group to their religion. We ignore people like Anders Breivik, who terrorized and killed 78 people, most of them being children. There were some who could not believe a Christian could do such a thing, so even though Anders professed to be a Christian, people like Bill O’Reilly said that anyone believing in Jesus Christ could not possibly mass murder people. The problem with a statement like that is that Jesus is often depicted in different ways and we all seem to celebrate the differences. I heard just recently that 300 million people are Christians in the USA, and as one theologian stated, “And that means there are 300 million different opinions on what it means to be a Christian”.

I agree with O’Reilly that the Jesus I know and love would never condone killing 78 people. But I also acknowledge there are people out there that can justify taking a life in the name of Jesus Christ just as there are Muslims who justify killing a person in the name of Allah. They pervert their religion to suit their own needs. And sadly, we all do it.

How often do we hear of churches being split down the middle over beliefs, ideals and doctrines? There are so many different denominations, created because of differences in opinions on things that Jesus never once bothered to speak about. He did however say this: “When you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me”. Not one word is spent on theology, creeds, orthodoxies, or religious practices. There is only one condition and that is whether or not you saw Jesus Christ in the face of the needy and whether or not you helped them with all the love you have inside of yourself.

The third lesson Jesus imparts to us in this passage is more personal. God does not only want a world that follows Jesus’ teachings, God wants us. God wants to save our souls and redeem us and give us the gift of life – true, deep, authentic human life.

But the only way we will receive such a gift is to acknowledge that Jesus did not care all that much about religion. Jesus does not care if we baptize children or adults. Jesus does not care if we have Communion by intinction or distributed throughout the pews. Jesus does not care if you are black, white or purple with yellow stripes. Jesus does not care if you are a sinner, a saint, or somewhere in between. He cared about saving us all. The tall ones, the short ones, the fat ones, the skinny ones, the rich, the poor, the never-do-wells and the impossibly successful. He wants all of us to be sheep that will enter the gate of heaven rather than the goats that will be thrown into the fires of hell with Satan.

When Jesus tells us he wants us to help others he is not looking for calculated actions that are designed to earn our way to heaven. This is not a casino game where if we double down at the right moment we will win our way into salvation. The grace of God is not an object earned. It is not possible to manipulate or coerce our way into heaven. There is no ten year plan that says, “This year I will tithe 10% and next year I will help out at the local shelter, and the year after I will raise money for cancer and that’s how I will get into heaven”.

God is not looking for machinations or deliberate kindness. We must never forget that God knows us as no one else can or will – God knows our true heart. The face we hide from the world. God is looking for pureness in our intentions, a true willingness to give. Loving those for whom Jesus gave his life, especially those people society has forgotten or deliberately ignored is the best expression of our love of God.

God wants us to be willing servants and that is why Jesus told this parable - so that the words will sink deep into our hearts and create a RESPONSE. God wants to save us from obsessing about ourselves and our own needs by persuading us to forget about ourselves and worry about others. That is God’s favorite project: to teach you and me the fundamental lesson, the secret, the truth – that to love is to live.

Amen.

Day of the Lord

Amos 5: 18-24
1Thess 4: 13-18

This weekend an iconic individual passed away. Andy Rooney died at the age of 92 after a life lived by saying it like it was and not being afraid to voice what some might not want to know about. He was one of the few people to oppose the war in Iraq when it first began and always seemed willing to stir the pot when it came to an issue he felt passionate about.

Andy Rooney mentioned once he probably hadn't said anything on "60 Minutes" that most of his viewers didn't already know or hadn't thought. "That's what a writer does," he said. "A writer's job is to tell the truth." A writer’s job is similar to a prophet’s – to speak the truth and not allow the public who may or may not like what you have to say stop you from saying that truth - especially when the truths being spoken are God’s word to the people. Amos was such a prophet. He knew that what he was telling the people would shock them, scare them, and anger them, but he also knew it was something that they needed to hear. Amos knew that if he was ever going to get the people to think about their faith and actions, it was by telling them something they wouldn’t hear from anyone else.

The Day of the Lord is something the Jewish people looked forward too; as Christians we also believe in the day of the Lord and pray it will be a time to rejoicing. But Amos’ words are a wrench in the works; they are a dark cloud covering up the sun. He takes an anticipated and treasured tradition and turns it into a dark, oppressive and judgmental moment of despair. This is not what the people want to hear!

Amos focuses his ire on the religious festivals, the music, and the people’s offerings to God. Few things could be more personal. How we worship, how we engage with one another, and what we give to God all speak volumes about who we are. It stings to be told that these are not right or good enough, so it is no wonder that we have learned to tune out the likes of Amos.

Many people skip over these passages with their harsh words and condemnations in favor of a happier ‘Gospel Message’. After all, as Christians we are to share the story of our faith with everyone and who wants to hear something that acts like a wet blanket? We even call it GOOD news – what Amos speaks of does not sound like anything good at all.

What can we learn from this passage that seems to deride the very things that make us who we are? How do we read these words and not feel the sting of them?

God expects more from us than we are sometimes willing to give. The people in this passage have convinced themselves that the Day of the Lord will be a celebratory day for which they must merely show up to participate in. Worship for them has become a way to pass the time, to honor God for the goodness bestowed upon the people and to celebrate their status as the chosen ones.

Amos speaks on behalf of a God who is furious with this lackadaisical attitude. It is an attitude where the sick are unaided and the poor starve unheeded. Justice is not being done and so Amos warns that the Day of the Lord brings upon these people a God whose first concern is ALWAYS justice and mercy for those less fortunate.

None of us like to speak about death too much. We avoid speaking of what we all know we will eventually face. But today we need to speak about what happens after our deaths. How will we hold our heads up when we have not done as God commands us to do? In several meetings this week we have had discussions on things that could be done, things that should be done by the church and things that seem impossible because many of us have become comfortable.

The truth is that when we are comfortable with our faith, when we are comfortable with our level of commitment to God – this is the kiss of death to faith. When we are comfortable, we stop questioning. When we are comfortable we stop learning and growing and looking for new ways to seek God in our life.

God is honest with us. God knows us, knows what we have been through in our lives, and through Jesus Christ understands our limitations. Many times we think only of the God of the New Testament who is often portrayed as the ultimate giver, the grandfatherly God who only desires to give us everything we want and need. We forget about the Old Testament God, one who is not always gentle with his creation, not always forgiving of our faults but instead pushes us to be more, to be better because God knows that we are meant for more than we have let ourselves become.

Some of us are tired. We feel like we have fought the good fight and now it is other’s turn to bear the mantle. We know what it is like to expect a season of light and receive only darkness instead. We have beaten the lion of cancer but are mauled by the bear of depression. We have shut the door on abuse and think we are safe only to have the fangs of divorce pierce our flesh. We want to tell Amos, we want to tell those who would admonish us “Spare us the scolding” as we nurse our wounds and fumble for the light switch. “Yes, our festivals leave something to be desired, and our offerings are not always what they should be, but aren’t we simply doing what God has asked us to do? We are all just doing the best we can.”

God does ask us to do the best we can. But God admonishes us through Amos because we keep forgetting that God is a God of surprises. God is reminding us that being comfortable with whom we are now, being okay with injustice and poverty and abuse is another way to give in to the devil. It doesn’t mean that we haven’t done good deeds in the past; it is a challenge to continue to do good things. It is a challenge that we all need throughout our life, a reminder that God is not done and therefore neither should we be done.

Andy Rooney hated that he was done with his broadcasts. Even though he understood that much of what he said to us were things we already knew, he felt that someone needed to be saying them. He died a month after his last broadcast aired and I have a feeling he probably died a satisfied man. One that can look his maker in the eye and say, “I never gave up, Lord. I kept trying to get my message out there to the people and I hope that any mistakes I made along the way will be forgiven through your grace.” Let us hope that we too can look our maker in the eye and say that we never gave up, we never lost hope and we always took the opportunity to spread God’s message.

Amen.

Practicing what We Preach

Joshua 3: 7-17
Mathew 23: 1-12


After repeated confrontations with the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus had had enough. Jesus had put up with enough vanity, hypocrisy and arrogance from the Jewish leaders. Unfortunately, these are common human characteristics that can be found in churches all over the world, it is not just the Jews who manage to alienate people with their unbending ways. As a Christian community we should be attentive to leaders whose mottos are more ‘do as I say and not as I do’. If any religious group should be aware of the ramifications of following our own wants and desires rather than those of God, it is Christianity since we have such a perfect example set before us in the Gospels.

The point of this passage is not just the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders, but it is a message about true discipleship to us.  The passage begins with affirming the leaders by telling the people that the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Jesus is telling the people that they are to follow the scribes and Pharisees in matters of religion – to do as they have taught them.

The problem is their actions and the way the Pharisees misuse their authority. They behave in ways that do not correspond to the words they have preached to the people. They speak of glorifying God and yet they only manage to make themselves look good. They tell the people to orient their lives around God, but instead they draw everyone’s eyes to them. They speak about being responsible for the peoples’ welfare but in their actions they do nothing to help the people.

These three tasks of the Jewish leaders are the same tasks Christian leaders are given. The pastor, the elders and deacons, the consistory members and committee members make oaths swearing to glorify God rather than themselves, they swear to help those in the church whom have elected them to lead, and to ask that thanksgiving go to God.

Or at least, that is the way it is supposed to be.

It is too easy to confuse our interests with God’s purposes, our power with God’s sovereignty, our standing with God’s glory. Whether we are speaking of ourselves or the whole Christian church, human beings have a strong tendency to create false and sinful hierarchies that displace God’s authority. We tend to ignore or rebel against God’s kingdom in order to protect our minor fiefdoms. We want to hold close to the power we have obtained and often do anything to keep it rather than acknowledging that the only true power comes through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

It is scary when churches use a constant reference to God and God’s purposes to support their own agendas. They are trying to lend holiness to their own aims and desires instead of allowing God’s will to prevail in the church. The truth is that pious words and convictions even when based on Christian beliefs do not make a person faithful to God’s will.

True faithfulness is found not in the words we say or the doctrines we profess to believe in, but faithfulness is fulfilled in our hearts. If our heart and life is oriented toward God, then we are faithful followers of God. However, if our hearts and lives are oriented toward our own selfish goals, then our faith in God becomes a shallow and empty boasting of our self and has nothing to do with God at all.

When we cling to the power we have in church, when we use it for our own selfish gains, we have corrupted the mission of our church. The committees we have, the positions we all take on are not for our glory, it is not to make us feel important and powerful. These are merely tools to do God’s work. The gifts and abilities God gives to each of us does not make us more special than another person, and we should not use them to make ourselves distinctive from one another. The gifts we have are to be used to help everyone because as Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees, “The greatest among you shall be your servant. All who exalt themselves shall be humbled, and all who humble themselves shall be exalted.”

However, there is another side to this passage. All of us who believe ourselves to be inferior, those of us who feel we are not worthy to be on a committee, to be a leader of the church must recognize that just as self-pride is a sin, so is continual self-doubt. It is a sin because it paralyzes us from helping those that would call upon us. It prevents us from partaking in things like Consistory or our many committees because we believe that we are not worthy to take on such a role. That is not true. Each person here has something to offer, it is why you have been placed in this church by God. If you think you do not have a gift to give, then you need to begin to pray because God will show you your many gifts and you will no longer have an excuse to hold up before God or yourself or the church.

 Jesus has tossed down a challenge to the scribes and Pharisees, but if we are honest, the challenge is ours as well. Jesus tells us to make our actions match our words, but not only that – Jesus tells us that our actions should not be done in order to receive praise from others. If, as your pastor, I work hard all week to write a sermon just to hear “Good Job” at the end of a service, then I am not doing what I am preaching. And there are times when I worry about having a boring sermon because I DO like to hear “good job”.

My grandmother asked me yesterday how I manage to come up with new ideas for sermons. My first answer was, “the scriptures provide different ideas”. When she brushed that aside and said, “Yes, but how do you know what to say?” My honest answer had to be, “I have no idea.” The truth is that I never know what I’m about to write until I type it. I don’t know because it is not ME that comes up with the ideas, it is not me that pulls the service together. I truly feel that if the Holy Spirit didn’t help me each week, I would have run out of things to say within a month. Sometimes when I am depending on myself too much, I feel that way. I become discouraged and disheartened with the passage, wondering how in the world am I going to find something to tell all of you this Sunday. Then when I begin to write and things aren’t going well, as soon as I look up and say, “God, this isn’t working, will you give me some help?” that is when it begins to flow. When I stop depending on myself and start depending on God.

The glory goes to God. Any one of you could do what I do – trust me in this. I just happen to be willing to do it every Sunday, although sometimes I’m not sure why! Just because I am the pastor, it does not make me any less susceptible to vanity, hypocrisy, and arrogance. The truth is that none of us are completely able to remove ourselves from temptation. We just need to be careful about not only giving our time and money to God, but the reasons behind why we do it.

If some of us like to give a lot of money to church or charities, we need to be aware that it can easily be addicting to give because we get praised for our generosity. If some of us like to be on a lot of committees because we like hearing, “Wow, Bart, you’re on so many committees I don’t know how you do it. Good job!” we need to pay attention that the praise does not become the only reason we sign up. If we refuse to let someone join us in a project because we do not feel they can do it as well as we can, we need to be aware that God does not need perfection, God needs willing workers.

It is not easy to follow Jesus. It is not easy to put others before ourselves. It is not easy to let go of our pride when we do well on a task and give the glory to God. It is not easy to make our lives revolve around someone as selfless as Jesus Christ – however we are called to do all of these things. If as your pastor I do not do as I preach, if as a leader of the church you abuse your position, then we have become like the scribes and Pharisees Jesus warned the people against. We must be clear on why we do things, we must be sure not to let our fears or our pride prevent us from fulfilling God’s call. The one thing we can and are sure about is that each of us here today has a place in this church; each of us has a gift to give.

The hypocrite will trade God’s quiet praise for the easy and loud praise of people. Hypocrites lack confidence in the divine ‘yes’ and we hypocrites make masks and broadcast our piety in order to win the human ‘yes’. However, the antidote to our hypocrisy is grace. It is the unearned favor of God. It is the love of Jesus Christ that continues despite our failings and blemishes. So into the midst of those masks we wear to hide ourselves, comes the one who loves our real face. Jesus is the one that tells us, “Come to me, I will give you rest”. It is enough to make us put down our masks, to put aside our pride and accept that God truly loves the person we hide from the rest of the world. We are not all the same, we do not all have the same gifts or fulfill the same roles in the church. But each of us is loved for who we are and we each have a gift to give to the world.

Amen.

Face to Face

Deut 34: 1-12
Matthew 22: 34-46

I was speaking with someone the other day and the fact that Moses never made it to the Promised Land really seemed to disturb them. I remember them saying something like, “Well, that doesn’t seem fair!”. It becomes even more disturbing when a person continues to read the rest of the passage and notices that the author says there was never again a prophet like Moses, one that had spoken to God face to face.

The story pretty much moves on from there with Joshua being the new leader and Moses buried outside the Promised Land. The more we ponder this passage, the more irritated we might become. God let’s Moses SEE the Promised Land with his own eyes, but then tells him he will never enter, and sure enough Moses passes away.

This is a man who for forty years, has put up with some serious crap from the people and some serious tests by God. Moses had to deal with the stress of getting the Hebrews together in Egypt, convincing them to leave all they have ever known and once he gets them on board, then he has to face down a pharaoh. This is not just any leader of a nation – this is a man considered a God to his people and telling a God anything is asking to be killed. But Moses does it and God backs him up with the ten plagues.

Then, once he gets the Hebrews free to head out into the wilderness, the Pharaoh sends out soldiers to get them back. Can you imagine the ridicule Moses would have endured when he tells them that his staff is going to part the waters so they can cross? Now they are across, the soldiers are dead and the Hebrews start complaining that without food or water, they will die out here. Moses goes to God and I can just hear him saying, “Look, they have a point. I trust you, I do, but they are scared for their families. Can you throw us a bone? Preferably one with meat on it!”

So God gives them manna and dew to drink in the mornings, and quail to eat at night. Then they get to Mount Sinai and while Moses is up on top of the mountain speaking to God and receiving the Ten Commandments, the Hebrews have begged Aaron to create for them a new god to worship since it was taking too long for this one to come through for them. Moses comes down, lugging these heavy, beautiful stone tablets to see a glittering calf being worshiped. In a fit of anger, he breaks the tablets and throws a huge temper tantrum. Think of this, once he has calmed down, realizing what he has done, he knows he has to go back up the mountain and say to God, “Um.. so.. the tablets got broken, because I broke them when I was angry… and um.. can we have some new ones please?”

Moses was a mediator. He had to constantly mediate between the Hebrews and God. One would do something the other didn’t understand and Moses would have to interpret it to the other. Moses led a hard life, and every now and then his anger got the best of him. The moment where God had had enough of Moses’ temper was with the water and the rock. The Hebrews were very thirsty and once again complaining about God not taking care of them (because apparently 40 years of food and water from heaven just wasn’t enough to convince them).

God told Moses to speak to the rock and water would gush forth. Moses, being angry at the Hebrews’ lack of faith, frustrated with God about how long it was taking to get to the Promised Land, struck the rock twice and water gushed forth. But because of how he disobeyed God, God told Moses that he would never enter the Promised Land. While God appreciated all that Moses had done, God was tired of Moses’ anger and the way he lashed out when his temper was up.

But when you look at all that Moses had done for so very many years – it still seems like if anyone earned the Promised Land- it was Moses! But this character flaw of his continually got the better of him. So are you as disturbed by the way Moses’ life ends as I was? What can we learn from Moses’ story?

This was a man like no other, blessed like no other and yet, even he was not able to please God fully. I was reading a book the other day where the author told a story about her mother asking her who her favorite biblical character was and she refused to tell her. She said that at 8 years old her favorite character was Moses because he always managed to disobey God and not get into trouble. But of course she didn’t want to tell her mother that! The sad truth is that Moses did get into trouble. He was shown the goal he had worked forty long years for, but he was never allowed to fully obtain it. Moses died with regrets even as he would have been proud of all he had accomplished.

Now, I know what we can learn from this story. How many of us let character flaws continually drag us back to our old ways? How often do we say we will never do that again, whatever it is that we know is wrong, but then somehow we find ourselves doing it anyway? Perhaps you are quick to anger like Moses and you do and say things you regret when you’ve calmed down. Perhaps you tend to worry too much about things you cannot fix, and allow that worry to control your life. Perhaps you depend on alcohol or drugs when you should be depending on God. Perhaps you spend too much time working and not enough time with your family. Perhaps you like to overeat when you’re feeling especially emotional. Perhaps you have moments of such sadness that no matter what is happening around you, no one can reach you. Whatever it is, we all have a character flaw, we all have a thorn in our side that continually plagues us throughout our life.

It is our presiding sin, the one that seems to trip us up and prevent us from making it to the Promised Land on our own just like Moses. We wonder how we will overcome it and we worry and stress about how we are not good enough to get to heaven because we cannot seem to get over this lifelong sin.

Moses may not have made it to the earthly Promised Land, but God certainly had a table prepared for him in heaven. Moses was given his heavenly reward by being faithful to God even though he got angry. God does not ask us to be perfect and without sin. That was Jesus’ job description because God knew none of us could do it. If not even Moses, the one person that got to speak to God face to face could do it, God knew no one else could live a life free of sin either.

It doesn’t mean we ever stop trying. As Christians, we are called to spread the good news and be faithful to God through our love of Jesus Christ. Being faithful takes effort – just ask Moses! Sometimes we stumble along the path, but we get through our hardship, we get through those moments of weakness knowing that Jesus is walking this path with us. This journey through the desert is not one made alone – Moses knew that and we know it too.

If we hold on to our faith, if we hold onto our love for Jesus and our love for our fellow human beings, God will be able to forgive us those character flaws. God will be able to forgive us our sins when we continually come back with red cheeks and downcast eyes. The journey we take is not an easy one, and sometimes our deserts last a good, long while and we become disheartened. But the one reassurance I can give to you is that no matter where you are in your journey you are not alone. You have never been alone. Jesus stays close to you and even when you are at your darkest hour, the light of his love will get you to the Promised Land. It may not be on your terms, it may not be on your time schedule, but Jesus will help you get there.

Amen.

With Power

 Isaiah 45: 1-7

1 Thess 1: 1-10

There is a story about three farmers whose fields were adjoined. One was Jewish, one Muslim, and one Christian. Each observed the Sabbath on a different day of the week. One harvest season, bad weather limited the days available for work, and skipping a day for Sabbath observance risked financial ruin. Nevertheless, all three farmers in turn observed their faith, making the choice to stay home on their respective Sabbaths. Upon waking the next day, each farmer found a barn filled with harvest crops. They gave thanks and praise to God, assuming angels had been sent to do the work. In fact, it was the neighbors of differing faiths who did the work in secret.

 Sometimes we are surprised by whom God sends to us when we need help, especially when they are very different from us. This passage from Isaiah speaks of an unexpected savior of the Israelites. They had been exiled for many years now and wanted desperately to go home to Israel. They prayed to God for deliverance, and it came from a foreigner. As a gentile and foreign king Cyrus is perhaps the last person they would have expected to rescue them from the Babylonians. Why not one of their own people, a Hebrew? Why a potential enemy?

It seems like God always has a different agenda and a different way of doing things than we do. Jesus often tells his disciples and anyone who will listen to him that it is not where a person comes from or what religion they practice that matters so very much, it is about what we do with our lives. He gives examples like the Good Samaritan, Nicodemus, the woman with two pence, and many others to show the Jewish people that God is interested in the individual, not the group they are affiliated with. The Lord can save anyone, and often has, throughout history.

 God has a habit of using people to help us whom we would not have anticipated, and we would do well not to make hasty assumptions. A fellow pastor told me a story the other day of shopping at Wal-mart. While he was waiting at the checkout he happened to see a man who was very unkempt. He had long, straggly white hair, blood shot eyes and clothes that had seen better days. As my friend was checking out, the older gentleman said to him, “God bless you, brother”. This kicked off a conversation where my friend learned the older gentleman was a pastor like himself, who does street ministry, working with the homeless and mentally ill. They exchanged well wishes on their individual ministries and my friend walked away. He went to turn around and say one more thing to the man, and he was no longer there.

 Many of us look at people and judge them by their appearances. If any of us would have seen this man at Wal-Mart we probably would have assumed he was a homeless man himself. Or maybe a drunken person with his wild hair and blood shot eyes. Not many of us would have spoken to him, let alone taken a few minutes to find out a bit of his life story. This man is one of God’s workers, but it would be easy to judge him as just another one of those people different from us and too scary to speak to because of his differences.

 But in church, we say that we welcome all people and that anyone who steps through the doors will be warmly received. We tell ourselves that we are friendly to everyone. The world is filled with friendly churches. Friendly churches have room in their pews for new people; willingly welcoming visitors with smiles, warm greetings, and welcome gifts; and they make it a point to host invite-a-friend Sundays with zest and zeal. The world is filled with friendly churches, but what the world needs is open churches.

Churches open to new people are open to their gifts, needs, and wants. Churches that are simply friendly make use of an informal and covert vetting process, a process that moves through a series of questions regarding new person’s past church affiliation, family background, and personal interests. Open churches seek to hear how God might be calling them to widen their circle of discipleship as they embrace the new person. For open churches, two questions work together: How will we share God with others? How is God sharing others with us?

We seek to be friendly here at Trinity, but we also need to be open. There are times when we are entertaining Jesus Christ within these walls and it may be the person we least expect that is representing Jesus. It is people like a man with wild hair and ragged clothes who ministers to the lost people of the streets. It is people like Cyrus who did not know God, and yet saved God’s people from their awful fate. It is people like Paul and Timothy who wrote to the Thessalonians and praised them for turning away from their idols to worship Jesus Christ instead.

 Paul told the Thessalonians that the Lord was with them, present in the power of the Holy Spirit and the good works they were doing in Christ’s name. They had turned away from what was evil and what kept them from God, and turned toward a life filled with grace, love and power. There is so much power for those who are willing to accept Jesus into their hearts. It is not a power that is measurable by any type of equipment; it is not a power that gives us anything we want whenever we want.

 The power we experience is one of unnamable beauty and significance because it takes from us all the burdens, all the worries and all the heartaches this world throws at us daily. It removes the chains of sin and death that drag us deeper into the darkness and instead lifts us up to live life with our Lord and Savior. The power is the presence of Jesus Christ, present through the Spirit of God, who lifts, lightens and enlivens us. We become new people, refreshed and soothed, when we understand the gift of Christ.

 This power comes without a price, but it comes with a condition. We must accept that our ways are not God’s ways. We must start to see the world with different eyes, eyes that are awakened to the idea that just because a person speaks differently, looks differently and believes differently than us, that God could be using that person to fulfill his goals for humanity. We say we do not judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to humanity, we often judge first and then allow ourselves to be surprised later about a person’s character.

 Too often we consider the SUV, three piece suit, and white teeth to be a sign of a good and moral person and the one with dirty clothes, darker skin and unusual demeanor to be bad and immoral. But what might alarm many professed Christians is that Jesus did not look like the first example, he looked the liked the second one. Jesus always seems to be what we least expect. Looks are deceiving.

God delivered Israel through a person that had never heard of YHWH. God delivered all people through someone that was considered a criminal, a common carpenter with a good speaking ability but little else, a person that was stepping above his station. And yet, because of the faith of Jesus Christ, all of us today are saved. Because Jesus was willing to humble himself and become a human, taking on our ills and learning our pain, we will have eternal life. How many of us would have yelled with the crowd, “Crucify him!”?

 It is dangerous to think we would have done things differently than those in the Bible. The reason it is dangerous is because it means we have not learned from the past. The Jews didn’t understand God’s plan and they killed God’s son as a result. They couldn’t look past Jesus’ humble beginnings to his divine nature. When a person walks through these doors, we need to not just be friendly to them, but open to what they have to teach us, rather than what we can teach them. We live by Christ’s example, who did not question those who came to him, but merely accepted them. We need to learn to see every person as an individual who is deserving of our love, compassion, and acceptance.

 Amen.

Few Are Chosen

Exodus 32: 1-14
Matthew 22: 1-14

This story is both alarming and comforting when we read it. Last week we discussed the vineyard owner and his two sons and how our actions and our words need to proclaim the same message. Jesus is now telling another story to the Pharisees and it is not just a look at today, but Jesus is telling them what to expect in the future. Jesus’ story of the wedding banquet is a reminder that some people who think they are invited to the Kingdom will be cast out into the darkness, but it also reassures us that the Lord will look in every corner and crevice of the world for those who do belong in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The King sends out an invitation to his guests and at first they ignore his invite, then when the second one comes, they violently kill the king’s slave which has the king retaliate by burning their village. Then the King sends out a third invitation, asking for the good and the bad alike to come to the wedding. This is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like according to Jesus. The expected guests are absent while the most unlikely ones are present.

Comparing God’s kingdom to that of a great banquet is one which would have been very familiar to the Jewish people. It draws on the practice of ancient kings who gave banquets for their subjects and on the image of God as the king who feeds God’s people. This feast is for the King’s son whom we recognize as Jesus. The king is God and the guests are all of us. The first group may be considered to be the Jewish people who violently killed John the Baptist, God’s first messenger and will then later kill Jesus. But isn’t it interesting that God doesn’t give up inviting people?  Instead, God, as the king in the story begins to invite everyone else both the bad and the good, to the wedding feast – and they all come.

Most human institutions have restrictions and limitations on who may be admitted in. For example, colleges require certain GPAs and scores on SATs as well as a certain amount of money to be paid. There are restaurants that require certain kinds of clothing if you want to eat there, some have even begun refusing children under the age of five to enter their premises. There is no organization or institution where everybody/anybody can freely come whether they are good or bad. Our denomination says proudly that we accept everyone no matter who they are or where they are in their spiritual journey, but I also know that on the congregational level, we don’t always make people feel as welcome as the words on our signs indicate that we should.

The great thing about Jesus is that his number one rule was to accept everyone who showed up to follow him. This is the good news of the gospel: Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Through this parable Jesus tells us that the only thing we need to be invited into the Kingdom of God is to have a transformed life. All of the wedding guests wore wedding clothes but one. That one man was cast out because of his lack of proper attire. To have a transformed life, we need to be clothed with Christ. Our wedding clothing is literally Jesus Christ.

For Jesus, the way of consolation is not around judgment, but through it. Sometimes to be able to live with ourselves, we must allow ourselves to be judged. The unrobed man at the banquet is approached by the King and the king says to him, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?” God approaches us in the same way and will ask us, “How did you get to these gates without having put on the clothing of Christ?” Our answer needs to be more than speechlessness which is all the man had to offer the king. He was cast out of the wedding and likewise, so will we if we have nothing to say.

Gospel living begins with an invitation. One we have all been given which is why we sit here in these pews today. The invitation requires a response from us. Just as when we are given an invitation to a wedding, we must RSVP and then as all of us women know, we immediately go searching for a wedding outfit. Weddings and celebrations require a response from us. One that the unrobed man did not give. He showed up expecting to be fed and looked after while having done nothing on his own.

Don’t get me wrong, grace is still a gift freely offered by Christ. However, the proper response to a gift is to show appreciation and thanksgiving. Many people are called by God, given the invitation that will set them free from the chains of sin. The ones that will be chosen to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven are the ones who are living in a new way, the ones who have responded to the invitation being offered – they are the ones who have put on the robe of Jesus Christ and are living transformed lives.

They have clothed themselves in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, as well as love which will bind all of these traits together in perfect harmony – that is the clothing of Christ. The outward effects of the gospel will be felt and seen on the inner heart.  

Within the Christian community there ones like in the parable whom refuse the invitation from God in one way or another. They want the safe, soft side of discipleship, but they shy away from the more difficult work of outreach and social justice. They want blessings from God but they cannot be found when it is time to share in the work of ministry. They can always be counted on to share in a free dinner at the church, but they are not willing to serve a meal in the hunger centre or hand out a bag of groceries at the food pantry. They want peace on earth, but they do not want to work toward that end. They want to end world hunger, but they do not want to miss a meal themselves or make a contribution to work toward that end.

When the king’s first invited guests refused his invitation, he did what many coaches on sports teams will do; he shifted the lineup that was on the field. When a coach believes his players have lost their energy or focus he will replace them with someone else. God has the authority to bench those who refuse to answer God’s invitation for service. The steady decline in the size and influence of the church in the US and in western Europe should be viewed in relationship to the steady increase in the growth and influence of the Latin American, Asian and African countries. If postmodern Westerners are unwilling to accept God’s invitation, then there are others God can and will invite into divine service. God is not dead, although many western theologians have been insisting so for the last forty years. It is only the zeal and passion in the church that seems to have died off.

The good news is that God is still out searching for wedding guests to invite to the banquet. This is the time where we make the decision on what we want to do. Are we Christians in word and deed who will follow Christ no matter where it leads us and how hard it gets, or are we those first wedding guests who would rather not be bothered by God if it requires hard work from us?

Only you can decide. The invitation is clear and it has been given to each and every one of you. Jesus loves you and has invited you into the Kingdom of God – are you willing to put on the robe of Christ and come inside?

 Amen.