God is Enough

Genesis 22: 1-14
Matthew 10: 40-42

God asks a lot from the people that dare to believe in something greater than themselves. Many nonbelievers think being a Christian is all about love and forgiveness. They aren’t wrong, but it’s not the whole picture to what it means to be a faithful, active disciple of Jesus Christ. Throughout the last 3.5 years I have made it a point over and over again to remind all of you that we are a called people. That Jesus expects us to continue to follow him whether we are 8 years old or 80.

Helen Smith used to ask me all the time, “I don’t know why I’m still here. What is the point of my existing in this place, living out my life in a chair?” And I reminded her of the many people who stopped by to see her smile and grab a piece of candy she kept out for them. I reminded her of her roommate, who for the longest time was comatose and so whenever she spoke, Helen wrote down what she said and read it to her family when they’d come visiting every week. And then, when the lady came out of her comatose state, they became good friends that talked late into the night. Helen brought people hope until the day she died. Helen was a faithful disciple.

It wasn’t an easy choice that Helen made. She had her bad days. She had her doubting days. And then I’d come to visit and I’d remind her of these things and she’d say, “I guess you’re right. I never thought of it that way.” She’d remind ME of my reason for being a pastor – to help people see things in a new way. It’s a circle of trust and faith and doubt and pain and back to love and forgiveness and trust and faith. It’s a circle that we need others to help us with because being a Christian is about being in community with one another. You cannot be a Christian by sitting home alone.

Abraham and Sarah’s story is one of my favorites in the bible. It’s actually the first sermon I ever preached to all of you, my candidating sermon. The idea of this older couple, in the twilight of their lives, daring to believe such an audacious claim made by a God that doesn’t fulfill the promise made to them for another 20 years just astounds me. Their faith is a miracle. Their lives are a testament to what it means to follow wherever God would lead, no matter how crazy it seems to everyone else and sometimes to ourselves as well!

Then they have this beautiful, miraculous child and God isn’t done testing their faith. Hadn’t they been through enough with Hagar and with 20 years of waiting, and Sarah’s bitterness and Abraham’s foolishness? But no, God wasn’t done teaching them. He calls out to Abraham and tells him he must sacrifice his child, his precious Isaac that he’s waited 90 years to receive.

He didn’t tell Sarah what God had called him to do, you can bet on that! He didn’t even tell Isaac for when Isaac asks where the sacrifice is Abraham merely replies, “God will provide” to him. Abraham tells Isaac to lay down upon the altar and because he loves his father, he obeys. Abraham ties him down the way he would an animal and raises the knife high above his son’s heart.

What thoughts were racing through his mind? Were tears running down his face? Was the knife slick with his sweat as his arm trembled from the regret and pain he was feeling? Could he look upon his son’s face as he went to plunge the knife into his heart or did he look away, unable to bear seeing the life seep from his son’s eyes?

We know the ending of this story is a happy one. Abraham and Isaac had no idea. All we know is that Abraham’s faith is so radical and intense that he’s willing to let go of the one blessing he’s waited his whole life to receive. Are we that faithful to God?

I want you to think of your greatest blessing. Is it your child? Is it your family? Is it your career? Is it your ability to provide a roof over your head when you grew up dirt poor? Is it the respect of the community after a life of disrespect from your peers? Is it your ability to read and write and educate yourself when no one thought you’d amount to anything? Picture your blessing in your mind. And now picture being asked to let it go; to destroy it in the most horrific and intimate of ways.

Could you do it? Could you let go of your greatest blessing because God has asked you to?

Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son? Well, this is the same God that sacrificed his own Son, Jesus for all of us. Is that why God did it? Was it a tit for tat sort of thing? Is God sadistic and cruel and vengeful? No.

God asked Abraham to remember that Isaac is a blessing provided by God. God was asking Abraham if now that he had received the ultimate gift from God, would he continue to follow and be faithful to what God has called him to do? God was asking if Isaac was gone, would Abraham also be gone or was Abraham’s faith and belief in God so strong that nothing could break the bond between God and him?

The point of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is NOT the blessings we receive. It’s not just about the love and forgiveness and good things. God calls us to be faithful based on the one blessing that God gave the world – the blessing of His Son who died to bring us into an eternal relationship with the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. And that’s what we ask ourselves today: If God asked us to give up our greatest gift, the best blessing we ever received in our lives – would we, could we obey?

God doesn’t actually ask us to give up what we’ve been given, but God does ask us to love God more than we love everything and everyone else in our lives. The only way to love God more is to be willing to let go of what keeps us from God. If you love your spouse more than God – then your spouse is your god. If you love your child more than you love God – then your child is your god. If you love your career or your car or your friends or alcohol, gambling, and drugs more than you do God – then they are your god. Whatever you don’t think you can’t live without and refuse to part with – that is a barrier between you and your Father in heaven.

It doesn’t mean you have to give it up forever, it’s about being willing to sacrifice the temporary for the eternal. It means giving your blessings into GOD’S hands to keep rather than trying to hold on to them yourself. What God has given, God will protect. We need to let go of our possessive hold and instead trust that Jesus has a purpose and plan for every one of us. Even the bad things have a purpose because from ashes of our old life and ways, gives birth the beautiful gifts of tomorrow.

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means trusting that God is all the blessing we need in our lives, and everyone/everything else is icing on the cake. And we all know cake is sweet enough, which means God is enough without the extra blessings. When we understand and act like God is all we need – we are free of worry and guilt and fear as we try to hold and protect what God has blessed us with. We are free to give those blessings back to God for God to protect and hold onto. We are free to just be disciples of Jesus and we will be happier for it.

Amen. 

A Disciple's Cross

Genesis 21: 1-14
Matthew 10: 24-39

The passage we read today leaves us asking several questions because of the nature of what Jesus was telling the disciples. It doesn’t sound like the Jesus we have come to expect and that is what we will be looking at this morning.

What does it mean to be like Jesus? These words were directed at Jesus’ twelve disciples and now they are directed at us. A disciple is another word for a person who is willing to learn. A disciple is willing to ask the hard questions and to look inside as well as outside of oneself to become more like their teacher. Our teacher is Jesus and so first we must ask ourselves, what does it mean to be more like Jesus Christ?

Jesus normally appears to be a harmless man who is gentle and kind, but in today’s passage, Jesus blows this idea clear out of the water when he says, “I have come not to bring peace.. but a sword”. Why would Jesus say something so surprising? Apparently, there is peace and then there is true peace that God would like to give to us. Perhaps Jesus is telling us that the demands of being his disciple can sometimes feel like a sword that cuts through lesser loyalties and makes quick work of our flabby, commonsense morality that we have adopted to fit better into society.

Because let’s face it, if Jesus was truly the person we always try to portray him to be: kind, gentle, without a divisive bone in his body who merely wants to bring humanity closer to God then how did Jesus manage to always get into so much trouble during his three years of ministry? What made people call him such names like the prince of demons? Why would following Jesus wreck families as he implies in verse 36? And how, if Jesus was always kind and gentle and nonthreatening did he manage to get himself crucified?

We like to blame society for all of this. We like to think that the people back then were uneducated and ignorant and we would never have done anything like they had. WE would have seen that Jesus was God’s Son. WE would have known that Jesus came to save us. WE are nothing like THEM! But we are. We are exactly like them. Jesus is the one that is different. Jesus is the unexpected; he is the surprise ingredient that changes everything. Jesus was concerned about furthering God’s kingdom on earth and kingdom work, it turns out, is more controversial and subversive than the more conventional kindness we tend to associate with Jesus.

And if Jesus is controversial and offensive, how much more so will we as his students be? We are told to be more like Jesus and in doing so that means following in Jesus’s footsteps. Jesus was concerned about making God’s kingdom more visible to the world. As his disciples, our duty is to make the world see God more clearly and more often. True discipleship is the art of seeking the kingdom with a single-minded determination and letting the chips fall where they may. It means sometimes we WILL cause offense and we WILL say things that have people backing away from us. It means that sometimes we WILL suffer for the sake of the Kingdom just like Jesus did.

If we as a church and as Christians manage to walk through life without offending anyone or rubbing anyone the wrong way with our beliefs then we need to ask ourselves if we are truly following Jesus or are we following our own desires and that of the world? Jesus was not always peaceful and calming to the society. He got angry and he said things that made people upset and he even wielded a whip to get his point across to those that had corrupted the ways of God. Where should we be wielding a whip in today’s world?

The other question we have to ask ourselves about today’s text is what Jesus has against families? In the passage today, Jesus seems to want families to be against each other which seems at odds with Jesus’ own relationship to his Father in heaven! Well, the first people to read the book of Matthew were faced with enormous pressure to reject Jesus Christ as their savior. Perhaps these words were meant for them to bring them some comfort when their families turned their backs on them for their beliefs.

However, Jesus has more to say on families in other parts of the New Testament that are not favorable either! Jesus is not thinking about family values, but rather kingdom values and they are not always the same. There are many stories where Jesus is depicted as being in conflict with his own family such as when he tells the people around him that they are his mother and brother and sister when his family wants to speak with him.

Jesus insists that those that follow him put the Kingdom and kingdom values first above everything else. He is more concerned with the righteousness of God than keeping the peace between man and wife and parent and child. Transferring our loyalty only to God and God’s kingdom is going to cause friction between those we call our family and ourselves.

It’s not easy hearing criticism from your family about following God, but anyone who is a true disciple will hear these words from the ones that swear to know and love you the best. I didn’t realize the depth of truth in this passage until I became a pastor and my family suddenly realized my time was no longer theirs to command. I cannot even tell you how often I have had one of my sisters get angry with me and then mock my calling to make me feel bad that I’m not doing what they want me to do.

It’s not easy following Jesus and it’s not always easy to put aside our family loyalty and love to take up the cross that Jesus has asked us to carry. It requires sacrifice and it requires determination and it requires a willingness to be hurt and sometimes even abused by the ones that swear to love us unconditionally. The truth is that Jesus loves us more than anyone else ever will and our loyalty belongs to Him. We follow Jesus even to the places that we do not want to go and even when it might hurt to do so.

But in the doing we recognize that the one we call our Father in Heaven is helping us to become better people, and is trying to make the world a more peaceful place. When we keep our hearts focused on the ultimate outcome, we’re better able to accept the pain and heartache that the present offers us when being a disciple of Jesus gets tough. Because the truth is it will be tough sometimes, but Jesus promises that it will all be worth it. And a true disciple believes their teacher and through the doing of what our teacher says, we learn Jesus has spoken truthfully. When we stop trying to be what society tells us we should be and start being the person Jesus has called us to be – we have more peace and happiness and a lot less worry and doubt.

Take up your cross, the unique cross that Jesus has called you to and keep in mind that although the going will get rough at times, if you live true to your calling as Christ’s disciple – God’s Kingdom will be made visible to every person you come in contact with. You will be the instrument God uses to bring peace and hope and love into the darkest and most bitter parts of the world, and that is worth the sacrifices we make to have it happen!

Amen. 

Understanding the Unexplainable

Genesis 1: 1-2:4a

Matthew 28: 16-20

The words in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are so much a part of Christian services that we don’t realize how strange and precious they are or maybe even fully understand their significance. Today is Trinity Sunday, where we celebrate the declaration that only Christians can make –we believe in a God that is three persons and yet still one God. What a strange and bold statement we make every week!

This passage we read today in Matthew, the one we call the Great Commission is where we read for the first time about our Trinitarian God. Jesus tells us, “Go therefore making disciples of all nations baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Up until this point, we knew that Jesus was God’s son and we knew that when Jesus went up to heaven he was going to send the disciples an Advocate he called the Holy Spirit. It is here, at this moment that we are given a true glimpse into the essence of the one we call Lord.

To baptize a person in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit could only mean that these are three separate names of the One God and we know that God is one because we’re told back in the days of Moses while receiving the Ten Commandments that there is one God and we are to worship only that one God. But even while we have grown up knowing there are three parts to our one God, it is hard to understand when we really try to think about it and very confusing to explain to a nonbeliever. This is something that is truly about faith because the essence of God is unexplainable. I had a professor once tell me that we make the statement and then we don’t try to explain it because we don’t even fully understand it.

But of course, throughout history people have tried because to nonbelievers the idea that we say such a strange thing makes them think we’re crazy and so we try to rationalize our faith. However, faith is not rational and God is never going to be fully explainable because we’re just not up to God’s speed! However, there’s an old Abbot and Costello sketch that tries to explain the Trinity that I’ll share with you.

Costello goes up to Abbot and says, “Bud, you’re a very smart man and you know many things. I bet you know a lot about religion.” Abbot: Well, yes Lou, I do. What would you like to know about religion? Costello: Last weekend I went to the park and there was a church group having a picnic and they had a big sign the said “Holy Trinity Church”. Well, Bud, I’ve driven around town and I have seen churches named St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Joseph, St. Thomas, but I never heard of this St. Trinity. Who is this St. Trinity? Abbott: Trinity is not a saint, Lou. Trinity is one of the ways that all Christians have come to understand God as revealed by Jesus Christ when he came to earth to live among us. The Trinity is God, One God – Three Persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Costello: That sure sounds like three gods to me. Abbott: No, Lou, one God, three persons – It’s a mystery Lou. Costello: Well, Bud, come to think of it, this is a very big world and universe and there are lots of people for God to watch. So probably the Father works the day shift, the Son the night shift and the Holy Spirit the graveyard shift.

Abbott: No, Lou. No shifts. God’s working all of the time. Costello: O.K. so if God’s working all the time, it’s still a very big world, so maybe God divides it up in thirds – a third for the Father, a third for the Son and a third for the Holy Spirit. Abbott: No, Lou, no thirds, no divisions, God is undivided. Lou scratches his head for a minute and then says to Costello: Well, Bud, let me ask it to you this way. I think God must be a baseball fan – after all the first words of the bible say “In the Big Inning”. Abbott: No, Lou, it’s “In the beginning” not “In the big inning”. Costello: Any way, Bud, you know how I like baseball. So let’s say that God’s team was playing a baseball game and God’s team was up to bat. The Father hits a single – Who’s on first? Abbott: God. Costello: Then the Son comes up and hits a single. The Father goes to second base and the Son goes to first base. Who’s on first?

Abbott: God. Costello: I thought God was on second base. Abbott: That’s right. Costello: O.K. – then the Holy Spirit comes up and lays down a perfect bunt. The Father goes to third base, the Son goes to second base and the Holy Spirit beats out the throw – Safe at first. Who’s on first? Abbott: God. Costello: I thought God was on second and third. Abbott: That’s right Lou. God’s on second and third. God is on first too. God is on all the bases. Costello: I don’t get it, Bud. Well, Bud can’t explain it and Lou can’t get it. And I can’t explain the mystery of the Trinity and we can’t get it. It is beyond our human comprehension to grasp the concept of the Trinity – three persons in one God, each fully God.

Abbot trying to explain the Trinity to Costello is a perfect example of the Great Commission and the Trinity if you think about it. Whenever you play a sport, the only thing you are concerned about is winning. If God has created a baseball field for us and God is on all three bases as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who does that leave on Home Plate for the swing? It leaves us. God is trusting on us to bring everyone home. This is why Jesus sent out the disciples, why Jesus continues to send us out.

We’re a called people and God has asked us to share God’s love with everyone we meet. That means understanding a little bit better the nature of our God and that means trying to understand the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is pure love and unity, and we are made in God’s image. It means while there are different parts to each of us that we show the world, we’re still just one person and yet we’re also a part of a whole community. We are called to work together, to love one another, to help each other, and to seek to know God by being more like Jesus every single day. We become more like Jesus by listening to the Holy Spirit’s voice and remembering the sacrifice of the Father in giving us His Son, a part of God’s self that lived and died and was raised from the dead for our salvation.

When we understand the true depth of God’s sacrifice for us, then we can share the Gospel with others with humility and awe which holds great power for someone that has never heard of our Lord and Savior. The point about the Trinity is not that we have the perfect illustration, the point is that we learn about relationships, covenants, love and sacrifice by recognizing God has three distinct parts while still maintaining God’s oneness. We understand that Jesus is God and that means God died for us. We recognize that the Holy Spirit which we claim is in our hearts means that God is in our hearts. God, the unknowable and almighty is inside of your heart and will always be a part of you.

It’s a miracle we carry inside of us. And once we recognize that, how could we not behave and think differently? How can we not have joy and peace? God is truly with us and will always be with us because God loved us enough to make us a part of God. We are blessed beyond measure.

Amen. 

Jesus Christ's Representatives

Acts 1: 6-14
1 Peter 4: 12-14, 5: 6-11

When Jesus is lifted up into the heavens, the disciples find themselves gazing upward in amazement and trepidation. The one they have devoted their lives to; the one who had promised them great and amazing things would begin to happen had just left them. Jesus had left them to fend for themselves. They had to have felt hurt and lost and a little bit terrified. And so they stood there, gazing up into the afternoon sky and found themselves wondering, “What’s next?”

Well, two angels appear and tell the men to stop looking upward and start looking around instead. There are things to be done whether Jesus is here in the flesh or in the Spirit. Jesus had prepared them for this moment and it was no longer necessary for him to be there for the disciples to do great things in Jesus’ name. The training wheels were off and now it’s time for them to try this on their own.

If we wait until we feel ready and in control of everything, we would never get started on things, would we? Jesus understood that. When it comes to change, when it comes to doing something different and great, we never feel ready. We get comfortable where we are at and even if we’re miserable, we don’t want to change our circumstances because at least where we are at is something we can handle. The disciples may have had some scary days in the last 3 years, especially in the last 40 days, but they knew they could handle it because Jesus was always there to help them through it and to teach them how to overcome it.

But now Jesus was gone. Jesus had been lifted up into the heavens and they were standing there all alone and now they knew for sure, Jesus wasn’t coming back like he had before. He wouldn’t suddenly arise from the dead in three days. Yes, he had promised he would come back eventually, but he’d never given them a timetable or told them that it would be in their lifetime. They were on their own and they probably felt very alone.

Just like we are on our own and sometimes we feel very alone as well. But we’re not. Jesus may have been lifted up into the heavens, but he promised something amazing. He would send us the Holy Spirit to guide us, to teach us, and to protect us in His place. Jesus knew that we are always going to fall short of perfection; he knew that sometimes we would feel lost and that we would need some guidance. And next week, we will celebrate Pentecost where the Holy Spirit is given to every person that proclaims themselves to be a Christian.

The disciples didn’t really know what that meant, however. They had to stop looking up at the heavens and start looking around at what was going on in the world. They needed to reorient themselves. This reminds me of new Christians. The fire and zeal they feel when they first start to learn about Jesus Christ and the miracles he performed and the greatness of his actions. The idea that God had come to earth and became a human being, to suffer and die for us so that we could always be with God. It’s so amazing that new Christians become overwhelmed. Their heads are in the clouds and they walk around with these new ideals and ideas in their heads and Jesus Christ in their eyes.

New Christians often try to do everything at once. “I will never swear again!” they proclaim. “I will give 10% of my income to the poor and the church!” they continue. “I will never again say a bad word against Sam in cubicle 12 or my Aunt Tracy again!” they exclaim. “Every time I have a bad thought I am going to pray to God to remove those thoughts from my head!” they promise fervently. “I will not gossip, covet, lie, or disrespect anyone ever again because Jesus loves me and I love Jesus! I will honor Jesus by being a better person!”

Sometimes I feel cynical. I hear new Christians say things like this and I remember back when I did the same thing. How I would promise never to use curse words again. How I would promise not to gossip or to think bad thoughts and how I was going to pray and read my bible every single day without fail because Jesus Christ died for me. I mean, it’s the least I can do, right? Somewhere along the way, we forget that zeal and passion for Jesus and we fall into an acceptance of our imperfections.

Maybe we get tired of feeling like a failure, and so we tell ourselves that new Christians still have their heads in the clouds and don’t understand reality yet. They don’t understand that they will curse when they stub their toe on the coffee table, and they will sometimes overdrink at the office party and talk bad about Sam in cubicle 12. They don’t understand reality, we tell ourselves. It’s how we justify our lack of passion.

But what if the new Christians have it right, but are just going about it in the wrong way? The disciples had to have been feeling the same way. They probably told themselves that without Jesus as their moral compass they needed to be better people. They needed to pray more and study the scriptures. They needed to not gossip or swear or lie. The disciples were now representatives of Jesus Christ for the world. They did need to be better than their fellow citizens.

Which means as Jesus’ disciples, WE need to be better than our fellow citizens. New Christians may think they will never lie or gossip again, but we know better. However, that doesn’t mean we aren’t able to stop ourselves from using lies to make our life easier and we can certainly prevent ourselves from opening our mouths to talk about others behind their back. If it is not something we would say to their face or discuss with them, then it is probably not something we should be talking about with anyone. New Christians think they can keep up this level of intensity all the time, but it’s a gradual process.

It’s kind of like exercising. When New Years rolls around, everyone wants to lose weight and they go out and buy new clothes and equipment and gym memberships. The first few days they’re working out constantly and barely eating anything. Their intensity level burns them out quickly and before long they’re sneaking into the fast food drive through for a burger and shake! Well, new Christians do the same thing with their intensity and then they become like us. Burned out on hopes and slightly cynical.

We need to start gradually. We need to acknowledge sometimes we will fail. The disciples didn’t get it right all at once either. We’re human and fallible. We’re going to make mistakes, but by the grace of God and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can be better people than we were the day before. We can be a good example for the rest of the world. We can be accurate and good representatives of Jesus Christ. Because I think we forget that whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we think we are important or not, we ARE ALL representatives of Jesus when we proclaim ourselves to be Christians.

That means to someone who has never heard of Jesus, the way you act and behave says to them that is the way Jesus would act and behave. I don’t know about you, but that suddenly makes me a little more aware of all the things I do wrong in a day. It suddenly makes me wonder how many falsehoods about Jesus I am showing the world through my actions and my words and my thoughts.

Which means we need to start doing something about it. Just like the disciples. They had their heads in the clouds with Jesus when the angels came and said it’s time to look around and see what you can do here on earth. What can we do here on earth? How about an extra prayer today? How about a deliberately kind thought about someone you normally harbor anger against? How about actually saying something nice to Sam in cubicle 12 and calling up Aunt Tracy to talk? How about not taking the easy way out by lying or not spreading the gossip you heard about your neighbor? How about saying thank you to God for what you have in your life now instead of coveting what you don’t have?

Start out slow. Start with one extra kindness and good deed, thought and prayer a day. Work your way up until it feels natural and you’re doing it all the time. We’re not always going to be perfect, but we are always Jesus’ disciples and therefore we are always his representatives. We are the example others look at to figure out if they want Jesus in their life. The best way to spread the Good News and to spread Christianity and to get people into the church is to be a living example of Jesus Christ.

That kind of passion and love and sincerity cannot be faked or rushed, however. But we can do it. The disciples did it, and we can as well for we ARE Christ’s disciples. Each and every one of us makes an impact on this world whether we realize it or not. And we’re not alone in what we’re trying to accomplish. Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit as our guide and we have each other in this church to lean on. We can be a better church and a better people and a better example of Christ by working together.

Amen. 

Welcoming God

Genesis 22: 1-14
Matthew 10: 40-42

Welcoming God

When you picture a welcoming home, there are certain things you expect for it to be considered a comforting and warm place. For some of us, it may be a fireplace in the living room, or a bunch of knick-knacks everywhere, or perhaps you find open spaces welcoming, and for others it is blankets on the chairs and lots of cushy pillows everywhere. When we think of welcoming people, most of us have the same kind of idea about what makes a person welcoming.

Most of us would agree when I say that people we find welcoming are those that smile when they open the door, they ask you to come in and sit down, they seem glad to see you and then you proceed to have a nice conversation. Perhaps they will ask you if you would like something to drink or eat while you talk. They may show you where the bathroom is or they will tell you to make yourself at home. These are all things that are done to make a person feel comfortable in another person’s home.

In the UCC, we have this idea called extravagant welcome. We feel that Jesus did not turn anyone away, and therefore neither do we. We understand that Jesus was all about welcoming people into his fold, there was never a person he refused to help or accept. Even as he hung suspended by his wrists he cried out for God to forgive his tormenters, “for they know not what they do.” 

The UCC believes that those who welcome others into the church, are giving thanks for what God has done for us. God welcomes, and also feeds the hungry, forgives sins, stands with those who are poor and oppressed, comforts the suffering, and becomes a home for those who wander. In gratitude, faithful Christians welcome strangers. A surprise in the Bible is the way you welcome a stranger expresses how you embrace the very presence of God as we see in Matthew 10.

Perhaps you are wondering why there is a story of Abraham offering up his son Isaac paired with this story of welcome in the book of Matthew. The reason is that faith and hospitality go hand in hand. Our faith comes from Jesus and the way we welcome God into our lives and the way we welcome strangers are linked together. Abraham is called the Father of our Faith because this man believed so strongly in God that he was willing to give up his only son because God had told him to. Let’s look back at Abraham’s story.

Abraham and Sarah were a wealthy, older couple living in what we would call a city today. One day, Abraham hears a voice calling to him and when he responds he finds out that it is God talking to him. God tells him to leave his nice home and friends that he has gathered around him in the last seventy years, and goes into the wilderness. God had a great new place – a new home for Abraham and if he listened, he would give him descendents as numerous as the stars in the sky. He tells his wife and they agree to head to this new place God has called them too. God has issued an extravagant invitation, and Abraham and Sarah have accepted this invitation on faith alone. Faith in God helps him welcome God’s call.

But everywhere they went and everything they did, Sarah was still barren. How can they have descendants as numerous as the sand at the shore if she could not have even one child? Sarah is afraid that they will get to this new place and she will not feel welcome at all, she’s going to be miserable and uncomfortable in this new home because she believed God’s promise and now she feels as if she has been duped.

So Sarah comes up with a plan and has her servant Hagar sleep with Abraham and she becomes pregnant. What Sarah did not realize is how hard it would be to watch her husband exclaim over the growth of the baby in Hagar’s belly or how Hagar would now be treated in some ways as well as Sarah despite her being a servant. I’m sure Sarah probably thought she would adopt the baby and call it hers, but that isn’t what happens. Instead, Sarah’s jealousy over the very plan she devised becomes too much for her to ignore so she threatens Hagar who runs away.

Sarah created an unwelcoming home because she lost faith in God’s promise. She tried to create her own happy ending by twisting God’s promise into something it was never supposed to be and made everyone around her suffer as a result. Thirteen years pass by and a couple men come to visit Abraham and Sarah sat in her tent and fumed because it turned out these men were angels sent to give Abraham a message.

The message was the same one they had been hearing for the last 20 years with no fruit to bear and so Sarah finds herself laughing bitterly in the tent when she hears them speaking. But the angels call her on it and she is left to think about where her lack of faith has gotten her. Sarah no longer felt welcome in her own home because of the things she had done due to her lack of faith in God. Her husband had a son by Hagar and Hagar was contemptuous of Sarah for her barrenness. Her husband was frustrated with Sarah’s lack of faith and she herself felt empty inside. Her disbelief in God’s promise created an unwelcome, unloving and inhospitable atmosphere for them all.

When Sarah does become pregnant and gives birth to Isaac, both Abraham and Sarah are very protective of him. After all they had gone through, after all they had given up and experienced, they wanted nothing to hurt or harm this precious boy. So when God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the amount of faith it took to go so far as to have the knife held over the boy’s heart – it took more faith than most of us have.

But you see, Abraham never lost faith in God like Sarah did. He believed in what God told him and was rewarded. There he was, his hand holding a knife over the heart of his beloved son and he hears God’s voice calling to him and he replies, “Here I am”. As he has always done, Abraham welcomes the voice of God, he welcomes the messages God gives and he believes and has faith in them. Abraham’s faith in God helps him to welcome, listen, and obey God’s hard requests.

Now Matthew 10 tells us that all who welcome us welcomes Jesus and therefore welcomes God. Those who give welcome to the sick, the poor, the hungry and all those in need will never lose their reward in heaven. As we have seen through Abraham and Sarah’s story, faith in God and our willingness to welcome God’s word and God’s people are linked together. There have been times in your life where you felt unwelcome and unloved. You may have felt like a burden upon those around you. But here in this church and in our denomination, we have made a promise to not do that to anyone who needs us because we know intimately the pain of being unwelcome.

It’s a relief to know that no matter what you wear, how you talk or what you do in your personal life, here in this church you will always be accepted as one of God’s children.

Amen.

Covered Ears

Acts 7:55-60
John 14: 1-14

Covered Ears

The two scriptures we read today seem at odds with each other. In one we have a man, a disciple of Jesus being stoned to death because he was doing what Jesus had asked them all to do – go out into the world and witness to the glorious acts of God and Jesus. In the other scripture we have Jesus telling the disciples that if they do as he had told them, anything they ask in his name will be done.

So why, if Stephen was doing as the Lord asked, why has God let Stephen be stoned to death? Didn’t Jesus say that all who believe in him will do wondrous works, greater even than Jesus himself had done? He said, ASK ME ANYTHING, ANYTHING in my name, and I WILL DO IT. Yet poor Stephen, doing as the Lord commanded, finds himself dragged out of the town square into the wilderness so the people could kill him.

If this was you or me, I’m sure we’d be thinking we just got the raw end of the deal. There are a lot of moments in life that mimic this story. There are instances in all of our lives where we can say we were doing exactly what we were supposed to be doing, at exactly the right time and still we got the raw end of the deal.

Think about it, there is always someone who worked really hard, but another person received all the credit. Someone in this room has probably been promised a promotion if only they did these few things and after they did, another person got the position. When you were a child, perhaps your sibling broke a lamp and you got blamed for it. These things seem to happen to the best of us, we are told one thing and we believe it and as soon as we put our faith into that thing, we are let down.

It seems incredibly unfair that Stephen is killed for doing the very thing God wanted him to do. It seems incredibly unjust of a supposedly righteous God to allow a disciple to be hurt for following the plan God had put in place. Reading these two scriptures does not give me a lot of confidence in following the Lord. What about you?

We need to think about this again. It doesn’t seem right that a good and kind Lord would do this. Who can put their faith in a capricious God, one that would place us like pawns on the chessboard to be gobbled up by the enemy? If Stephen, a wonderfully kind man who was a prophet can be killed, then what chance do all of us have? It sounds like we too would be expendable.

This was where I was at the beginning of the week. I had all of these questions floating in my head and I couldn’t figure out what God was trying to tell me. I wanted to force these scriptures to be something they weren’t and as soon as we try to force the scriptures to be something they are not, we have forced God to be something God is not. So finally, I stopped forcing and started listening. That was when God let me in on a little secret I will share with all of you.

Jesus tells us that anything we ask for in His name we shall receive - easy enough to understand. So then if we go back to Stephen’s stoning let’s see what he asked for. “But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices; they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep”.

Stephen asked for Jesus to receive his spirit and then as he fell to his knees he asked the Lord to not hold this sin against his murderers. Stephen didn’t ask to be saved. Just like Jesus could have asked for a thousand angels to keep him from the cross, Stephen could have asked to be saved, but didn’t. Instead, Stephen understood that the greatest tragedy wasn’t his death because soon he would see his Lord in all God’s glory. No, the greatest tragedy was a group of people who refused to hear a word of truth about God. They refused to such great lengths as to kill another innocent person.

The violence of their reaction really strikes me. They covered their ears like it physically hurt them to hear those words from Stephen’s mouth. It was like a piercing beep inside their brains, they could not stand to listen and so they covered their ears, but it wasn’t enough. These words were pulling apart the very fabric of all they had believed in and so therefore it must be stopped. And so they silenced that piercing voice that spoke the truth.

It makes me wonder how often we do the same thing. It makes me think back to different times in my life where I refused to hear any opinion but my own. I refused to consider a different perspective because that would make my beliefs tumble down like a tsunami crashing against them. It’s scary to be challenged to think differently. It’s scary to think something you have believed your whole life could be wrong. We forget that sometimes our ideas about life hold us captive and that if those ideas change, maybe our captivity will change. Maybe we will be set free.

One thing I have learned in life is that as soon as we think we have our faith figured out, we need to go back to the drawing board. It is very dangerous to ever think we know for sure what God is all about. It’s dangerous to think we have all the answers or that God could not possibly continue to reveal more truth to us about what it means to be a Christian and God’s child. When we begin to think we have seen it all and done it all and know it all, we have become blind and deaf to the Lord’s Holy Spirit. We lose our ability to change and grow, we have lost our ability to become closer to God because we think we have this ‘being a Christian’ thing all figured out.

This is an example of covered ears and we need to ask ourselves where we have become blind to God’s voice. Perhaps there is something you believe about God, about Jesus, that isn’t true. Stubborn belief in something is not the same as having faith. Stubborn belief is just refusing to acknowledge any opinion but your own, not even God’s opinion matters to such a person. Faith is about understanding we know nothing completely, we understand nothing completely, but we believe completely in God’s love for us anyway.

I’m challenging you this week to be open to other opinions but your own. I challenge you to keep your ears uncovered so that you may hear the word of God whispering in your ear. I hope that whatever you have been holding onto so stubbornly will stop holding you back from experiencing the truth of Jesus Christ. Allow your hearts, eyes and ears to be opened by the Holy Spirit and may the Lord bless you in ways you never expected because of it.

Amen.

The Road of Broken Dreams

Acts 2: 14a, 36-41
Luke 24: 13-35

The road of broken dreams, the road to Emmaus is where Jesus finds us and brings back to fullness and light.

Sometimes we are blinded by our pain and loss and confusion, and we wonder if even God knows what comes next for us. In the midst of our pain, do we sometimes limit our viewpoint, and obscure our own vision from seeing the pattern and path that we are to follow?

The road leading away from the holy city these two men are traveling is the road we are taking too. Where have our wounded hearts and downtrodden spirits blinded us to the truth that Jesus walks with us and talks with us? The text today makes us ask ourselves if faith can be found in the garbage of a shattered life and faith? Well, the heart knows more than the head!

As the men are walking along, Jesus shows up on the road and they begin to talk to him. They mention what has happened in Jerusalem this last week when Jesus asks questions about it. Sadly, they tell him they had hoped Jesus would redeem Israel, and now something even more strange has happened in that the women in the group had been told by an angel that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, but had risen from the dead. They had gone to the tomb and it was as the women said, but they did not see the angel or Jesus himself.

Jesus’ response to their pain is to begin a long recitation of the Torah scriptures. Where is the sensitivity of the one they called Messiah? But Jesus shows his connection to the faith tradition of these men’s past when he begins speaking of the Torah to them and making connections between those scriptures and the one they had hoped would redeem Israel. He is forming a bond with them since they have yet to recognize him AS the risen Messiah. He is merely a stranger walking the road to Emmaus with them and who does not seem to know what has taken place these past few days.

These two men walking down the road, know that the women of the group had seen Jesus as well as an angel. They had heard that “Easter” had arrived in the resurrected body of their beloved Messiah, but it has not sunk in yet. They do not feel it in their heart and souls. They are dejected and miserable because of the awful way Jesus died. The humiliation and pain he suffered as well as the horror they felt at the killing of not only Jesus, but their hope in a greater good. Their anguish prevents them from fully believing what Mary and Mary Magdalene had seen that Easter morning.

And so, it is for us sometimes. We go through the 40 days of Lent, and we try to pray more and seek out God’s face and to feel the Holy Spirit more truly in our lives. And then comes Good Friday and we experience the utter loss of hope and then Easter arrives and for whatever reason, the joy is not present. We cannot get past our pain. The anguish in our souls is too heavy and deep to experience true happiness at knowing that the Christian story does not end in death and loss, but in the joy of a resurrected Savior and life eternal for us.

Easter does not always come in three days. Stones are rolled away, but sometimes we stay deep in the tomb. There are a lot of things that prevent us from enjoying Easter the way we are meant to. Sometimes our hearts are burdened with too many cares for us to fully let joy bubble to the surface on Easter morning.

What should we do when we have reached our wit’s end, when what we thought was worth our lives has left us washed up emotionally, financially, physically, and spiritually?

There once was an ant that felt imposed upon, overburdened, and overworked. You see, he was instructed to carry a piece of straw across an expanse of concrete. The straw was so long and heavy that he staggered beneath its weight and felt he would not survive. Finally, as the stress of his burden began to overwhelm him and he began to wonder if life itself was worth it, the ant was brought to a halt by a large crack in his path. There was no way of getting across that deep divide, and it was evident that to go around it would be his final undoing. He stood there discouraged. Then suddenly a thought struck him. Carefully laying the straw across the crack in the concrete, he walked over it and safely reached the other side. His heavy load had become a helpful bridge. The burden was also a blessing.

Sometimes we are so blinded by our burdens that we cannot see how they could possibly become a blessing. But the truth of the matter is that if we stop our grumbling for a moment, if we close our eyes and take a deep breath, if we allow for just a moment our minds to empty of our troubles we are able to see things more clearly. When we stop our busy-ness and our complaints, it gives the Holy Spirit a chance to speak to us. It gives us a chance to open our eyes and see the troubles in our midst hold a purpose and the stranger we encounter on this journey is there to help us.

As the two men walked along the road to Emmaus, Jesus walked with them until the end and then he went to leave them until the men protested and asked him to join them for dinner. Jesus had given them renewed hope as they walked along, and then he offered them a choice. Did they want him to continue to walk with them or will they let him walk away? They ask him to dinner and it is as he takes the bread, blesses and breaks it and gives it to them that they finally see that the wise man on the road walking with them is none other than their risen Lord and Savior, the one they had mourned and missed the last three days.

Jesus always leaves us free to turn our backs on him. We must choose to let him into our hearts. It’s always a choice to see the hope rather than the darkness; to enter the light of the garden rather than stay in the darkened depths of the tomb. I urge you to invite Christ back into your heart today. I urge you to see where God has been working in your life, even in the darkest and most trying moments you have experienced. I urge you to remember that your God is one that does not leave you alone to walk through the desert, but instead he is ahead, behind, and with you at all times.

A little boy was eagerly looking forward to the birthday party of a friend who lived only a few blocks away. When the day finally arrived, a blizzard made the sidewalks and roads nearly impassable. The lad’s father, sensing the danger, hesitated to let his son go. The youngster reacted tearfully. "But Dad," he pleaded, "all the other kids will be there. Their parents are letting them go." The father thought for a moment, and then replied softly, 

"All right, you may go." Surprised but overjoyed, the boy bundled up and plunged into the raging storm. The driving snow made visibility almost impossible, and it took him more than half an hour to trudge the short distance to the party. As he rang the doorbell, he turned briefly to look out into the storm. His eye caught the shadow of a retreating figure. It was his father. He had followed his son’s every step to make sure he arrived safely.

We spend so much of our time wanting life to be a certain way and experiencing a much harsher reality that sometimes the scriptures seem to be unrealistic to our jaded eyes. You have spent enough time experiencing the desert wilderness. Although God has walked with you every step of the way, it is time for you to enter the garden, to find that Promised Land, to experience Easter joy at the idea of your Savior defeating death and sin for your sake.

Let your eyes be opened, feel that burning in your heart, and may your life be changed forever by the knowledge you do NOT have to stay in the darkened tomb! Come out and rejoice for Jesus has set you free!

Amen.