Incarnational Gospel

1Kings 2: 10-12, 3:3-14
John 6: 51-58

For the last few weeks, we have spent quite a bit of time in the book of John. We have been concentrating on what it means for Jesus to be the “Bread of Life”. The idea that Jesus’ flesh and blood has the power to bring us life is not an easy one to accept. Jesus knows this. It is why he spends so much time trying to show the people around him that eternal life is being offered by a God who cares enough to become one with us.

Some of us have been reading the bible for so long, and have heard these passages so many times that perhaps the meaning of what we are reading has become obscured. God, our Lord, loves us so much that He could not sit back in heaven and watch us flounder here on earth. God wanted to be a part of our struggle, to help us through each bump in the journey and God’s answer was Jesus Christ.

Picture a child, your child or a relative of yours. Think about a time you have watched them struggle with something. Perhaps it was bad grades, or inappropriate friends, or the struggle to make the right decisions as they became adults. A parent’s instinct is to help their child. We want to guide them, protect them, and help them with the wisdom we have earned with our own mistakes. God is no different. God looked at us and saw our pain, and God could no longer sit back and let us go through life without help.

Jesus, throughout the book of John and particularly in the sixth chapter, is hammering home the idea of incarnation. Incarnation is God, made flesh. We Christians make a bold claim. We claim Jesus Christ is not just the Son of God, Jesus Christ IS God. We know that Jesus is both fully a human being, flesh and blood like us; but we also know that Jesus is fully God. Jesus is not just LIKE God, Jesus is completely, 100% God. When he tells us the only way to see the Father is through the Son, it is because Jesus is God and has come to earth to show us more about our Heavenly Father than we ever could have known previously.

This is beyond radical compared to other religions! The Jewish and Muslim faiths agree with us on many things about God. We all agree that God is holy, loving, and righteous. But when it comes to Jesus, this is where we stand alone. This passage drives home the heart of Christian belief. Jesus’ body, broken on a cross is the flesh we eat; his blood, poured out for the world is our drink. Through his flesh and blood, we are given the gift of eternal life. It is given for all who are willing to accept such a radical thing – that the salvation of the world comes from the broken body of God.

The broken body of GOD. No other religion dares to say such a thing about the all-powerful, all-knowing God except Christians. It is incarnation, a God who is eternal, but enters into time, born of a Virgin and the Holy Spirit, becoming an intimate part of history to save us all. A man named George Macleod once said a prayer that says it all: “The morning is yours, rising to fullness; the summer is yours, dipping into autumn; eternity is yours, dipping into time”.

Jesus is a gift unlike any other. The shocking words he pronounces in this chapter remind us that when we eat and drink at the holy Table, eternity has broken into time in a unique, unrepeatable way. And God keeps on dipping into our time. Today, as we eat and drink the bread and wine, we are joined with the living Christ who is forever, and because we are joined to him, we are forever. Through the laying down of his life for us, he took away the sins of every person on earth. This bread and cup are for every person, in every land, in any imaginable state of mental, physical, and spiritual health.

As I mentioned, this idea that God could have come down from heaven to offer up his life for our own, is unique to Christianity. It is where Jews and Muslims part ways with us. Even Jesus’ disciples find this teaching in John 6 to be difficult to accept. Those of us that choose to believe, commit ourselves to a life of irony and unconformity.

Try explaining this passage to someone that knows nothing about Christianity. It sounds barbaric, like we are cannibals to be eating flesh and blood. It sounds insane, this idea that flesh and blood could make a person never die. It sounds like we are following a man who makes incredible and impossible claims. The secret to our faith is we are not following a man. We are following God. John 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. .. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

This is the secret we are meant to share with the world. Somehow, we need to make known to those who would look at this passage and scoff at such claims of eating flesh and drinking blood will bring eternal life, we must let them know what we know. The grace of God is given to us as we take the bread and wine. We are lifted up into heaven, for a brief moment as we eat and drink and pray together, we are in intimate, loving communion with God. Such moments change the course of our life forever. We have been touched by God. Jesus has shown us more about God’s loving, inexhaustible, and patient nature than we could have known without Jesus’ presence on earth.

This talk of Jesus of flesh and blood, eating and drinking it, it is too radical for many people. Our faith would be easier if it was only a matter of logic and belief. But this chapter reminds us that Jesus intends to have all of us, body and soul. His truth wants to burrow deep within us, to consume us as we consume him, to flow through our veins, to be digested, to nourish every nook and cranny of our being. As we take Communion, we sit with God. We have been given a gift too precious for words, and it is our job to show others how this offer of life has changed who we would have been if we never experienced such an intimate encounter with Jesus, our God and Savior.

Jesus has come down from heaven with the intention of taking it all back. He wants all of us, and he wants us to have all of him. This God, OUR God is so scandalously, intimately available to us. And Jesus tells us here that whoever knows this, knows how to live forever.

Amen.

Bread of Life

1Kings 19: 4-8
John 6: 35, 41-51

Would you recognize Jesus if you met him today?

Many Christians feel that they know who Jesus is and would recognize his presence if they met him. In our lives, there will be many times when we encounter Jesus and we may never realize we just had a brush with a holy presence. There will be other times when the presence is so powerful, that immediately we know Jesus and are changed by the encounter forever. This does not happen to everyone and so I ask again, how often do you recognize Jesus in your life? If you cannot recall an instance, let me share one of mine.

A few years back I was walking into a bookstore because I knew a new book was coming out by a favorite author. As I went to open the door, an older woman who was obviously down on her luck or even homeless stood beside it. She looked at me and asked softly, “Do you have any spare change?” I hesitated. I had a $20 bill on me and my debit card. No change, no ones, and that book was calling my name.

I looked at her, smiled and said, “When I come back out I will have some change to give you.” She looked at me for a moment and then nodded her head as I walked inside. Was it my imagination or was that disappointment in her eyes? When I came back out, with some ones clutched in my hand – she was gone and I didn’t see her anywhere along the many stores. I knew logically that management had probably asked her to leave, but I found myself sadly wondering if I just failed Jesus. Did I really need that book more than that woman needed $20? Why didn’t I just GIVE her that money? I was going to school to be a pastor; I’m supposed to be generous and loving, not selfish!

I have no idea if that was Jesus or not, but I do know that I failed that woman and myself that day. The irony of it all is that I rarely ever carried cash while I lived in Pittsburgh, but on THAT day I had a twenty dollar bill and so I had the ability to help. But I didn’t.

Jesus tells us the only way we will know God is through the one whom God sent. Jesus also tells us the only way to meet him is if God has drawn you to Jesus. For some of us, this means we will always believe that only Christians will get to heaven. It seems to me that this passage also tells us that God, who created every living person, will constantly try to draw us near to Him through Jesus no matter our religion, race, or creed.

We believe the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. So how do we recognize Jesus when we meet him? Here’s another encounter of the one who died for us all that I read about in SouthAsianConnection.com.

Her name was Indu who was a hardcore atheist. Her life had been full of pain and torment. Her parents were against religion and often told her not to believe in God and that religion was a waste of time. She was eight years old when she was raped and abused by a neighbor. She internalized her pain to such a point that at 14 she became severely depressed and suicidal. She started cutting her wrists, she hated herself, she felt empty inside and knew what a mess her life had become.

At 17, she gave up on life and tried hanging herself. When her friend found her the doctors estimate she had been without a pulse for at least 12 minutes and spent eleven days in a coma. She said it was during that time she met Jesus. She was in a beautiful place with wonderful music unlike any she had heard before when two angels approached her and said the Lord wanted to see her. Immediately, she was afraid and thought the Lord wanted to punish her. When he appeared she said she recognized Jesus’ voice, and immediately began to apologize for all she had done wrong.

Instead of appearing angry, he was concerned and caring. She said they talked for a long time while Jesus explained the purpose of life and that each person did have a purpose. Jesus told her the purpose was found through Him. Through her time spent with Jesus, she was given a reason to live. She said some people tell her that she didn’t really meet Jesus, that it was all a dream. She responded by saying, “If that is true, then how did I find a reason to live, healing from past hurts, childhood sexual abuse, bulimia, and depression? Wouldn’t I live the same way as before if it wasn’t real? These struggles do not just go away by coincidence. Her family and friends had noticed she’d changed. That’s the power of God.”

Indu’s story is one of many that I have heard. Some will believe her story, others never will. This person’s life was at an end, but Jesus gave her life back. There are so many ways to meet and know Jesus. Some of us will get fantastic experiences and others of us will meet Him in our normal routines. But each moment is a chance for us to change, to grow, to learn more about whom we are and why we are here on earth.

For us to recognize these encounters requires for us to be aware of what the bible says about the kind of person our Savior is and not just assume we know. All of us tend to have a picture in our heads of what Jesus looks, talks, and acts like. Usually that idea of Jesus stems from our own experiences with the world. What if Jesus showed up today and was nothing like you had always pictured him to be? How do we react when our Lord tries to show us there is more to him than we could ever imagine?

If we go back two thousand years, the Jewish leaders killed Jesus because they could not believe this simple man was THEIR Messiah. He was nothing like they had pictured or what they wanted from a Savior. They could not understand and so they hated him. Many of us think we know Jesus, but I think history has shown us that we only know parts of him. There is so much more to God than we could ever fully know or understand.

But Jesus does not give up on us. He continues to meet us where we are at in our faith and life, to help bring us closer to Him. Even our ideas about Christianity sometimes need to be updated by Jesus. Fifty years ago, women were not considered suitable pastors, and all Catholics were looked at with suspicion by Protestants. Our ideas about God and religion come from how we grew up and what we were taught. I urge you to pay close attention to the people God is introducing into your life, and the encounters you have with them.

It may just be that God is using the people around you to show you more about who Jesus is and Jesus is trying to help bring a purpose and peace to your life that you never experienced before. The only way to know for sure is to keep our eyes and hearts opened to the powerful love that is Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Lessons Learned

2 Samuel 11: 26- 12:13a
John 6: 24-35

This passage would be very easy to preach if I just wanted to skim the surface of the message within it. The last line where Jesus declares himself to be the bread of life and all who come to him will never go hungry or thirsty could very easily be turned into a fifteen minute sermon on believing in Jesus and he’ll give you everything you need.

But that would be a misrepresentation of what this passage is really about.

The truth is that everyone in this room believes in Jesus, has at least a little faith in what Jesus can do which is why you come here on Sunday mornings. And yet, despite your belief and faith, do you have everything you need?

We are lucky to live in an area where most of us are able to make a decent wage, or at least be able to put food on the table and a roof over our heads. We have more than many others in the world do. So yes, in some ways, Jesus has provided for us all that we need to survive. But is that all we need?

If life was just about survival, then I would say yes to the question. However, life is about a whole lot more than it was five thousand years ago. Back then, surviving was paramount. Today, in a world of seven billion people, with the continued advancement in medicine, the ability to access knowledge, technology, and supplies; our survival is just about guaranteed as long as we have a job to pay for these things.

Some people will play with words. They will tell you that what you want and what you need are two very different things and the more important part of it all is the needs. I disagree. If we never have our wants and desires fulfilled, our life is left feeling a little hollow. When I’m visiting people in nursing homes, this becomes so much clearer.

The people in there have all of their needs met. They are bathed, fed, given their medicine and taken for walks throughout the day. All of their physical needs are met by the caring staff. However, what they want out of life is so much more than just to have their physical needs met. I meet so many people who feel lost and alone inside those nursing homes because their family has passed away or find no time to visit them. Some have lost their eyesight or ability to use their fingers because of arthritis and so the things that brought them joy such as reading a story or making a pillow are now denied them as well.

These wants of theirs are just as important to be fulfilled as their needs. And so are yours. It is not selfish to want something more for yourself than what you already have. It is not wrong to want to strive to achieve greater goals in your life.

In this passage, Jesus makes a point to define the difference between material bread and spiritual bread. He tells the people that they are looking for him not because of the miracle of feeding five thousand people with such a limited amount of food, but because they had been given enough to eat and drink when they expected to go hungry that night.

Jesus reminds us we should work for the food that does not spoil. When Jesus tells us we will never go hungry or thirsty through our belief in Him, he is not talking about the physical hunger and thirst. It is not about needs, it is about wants. When we pass from this life, do we want to look back and only see that our physical needs have been met? Or are the true memories we cherish the moments when our desires are fulfilled?

For example some of your wants may have been graduating from high school or college. Your first home. Your first job. Your first achievements in your career as you work hard. Meeting that special someone who makes your heart skip a beat when they smile. Marrying them.  Having children. Watching them grow and listening to them fight and then the moment when all is forgiven and the hugs begin. These things are the beauty of the earth; these things are gifts from God and manna from heaven that fulfills the spiritual growth inside of us rather than our physical needs. They cannot feed our body, but they do feed our soul.

 Historians have figured out Jesus lived on earth for around 33 years. Three years were spent ministering to the needs of others and helping to teach the disciples about the Kingdom of Heaven. What did Jesus do for the first thirty years of his life? We have read in the bible that at just 12 years of age, Jesus had a wisdom and knowledge of God that confused and baffled his parents Mary and Joseph.

We have no record of what Jesus did in the next 18 years before his ministry began in Cana at a wedding. But when I read a passage like this, I think I know what he did. Jesus lived. He went on long walks and talked to God. He studied the Old Testament and probably listened to the teachers in the synagogue. He fought with his brothers and sisters, and helped his family make a living. He loved and laughed and stored up treasure in heaven. Jesus was so wise in his three years of ministry because he had lived and loved in the previous thirty years.

He knew his time would come to an end quickly and violently, but somehow he did not let that stop him from enjoying what life had given to him. Jesus tells us that he is the bread of heaven and all who come to him will never go hungry, all who believe in him will never be thirsty.  Jesus shows us the way to live.

He tells us not to worry about food or clothing. When he asks the disciples to go out spreading the Good News he tells them to take nothing but what clothes they wear that day. What Jesus thinks is more important than a hot meal are the memories we create, the joy we have in sharing our lives with others, the love we experience in the connections we make on earth.

Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is the connection we have to all human beings in this world. Through him, we will never again be lost and alone. We will never again wonder if someone loves us. But this can only be experienced if we allow ourselves to open our hearts and souls to the people around us. Relationships are created through sharing – our lives, our minds, and our hearts.

When the people heard this they exclaimed, “Give us this bread always!”

And Jesus died so we may always be connected to each other and to God. Jesus died so that we may live and have this bread always.

Take and eat; the body of Christ – broken for you. Take and drink; the blood of Christ – shed for you. May you never hunger or thirst again.

Amen.

Breaking Bread Together

Jeremiah 23: 1-6
Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56

Today is our Communion Sunday. This is the day we take the bread and wine and we remember the sacrifices of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the day we stop for just a moment in our worship to appreciate the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, filling us with warmth and love and acceptance, as we come to Christ’s table.

The scriptures in Mark show us how important it is for the disciples to take a moment to break bread with one another and how, even back before technology, there wasn’t always time to do so. When we read the words, “For many were coming and going, and they had no time even to eat” it sounds so much like what we go through daily.

We are too busy to pause for a real lunch, and so we munch on vending machine food while working at our desks. Our teens and children grab a pop-tart for breakfast as they walk out the door instead of sitting down at the table for a meal. Parents and children drive through the fast food restaurant on their way to soccer and dance practice. Those of us that commute sip on double lattes to get us through the day and we snack on unhealthy things while in the office before coming home with takeout for the night. Even our babies and toddlers graze on cereal pieces and other portable foods while we hurriedly shop at night after work.

We are a people that are besieged by activities and responsibilities that reshape even the most basic functions of life like our eating habits. Our busyness prevents us from gathering for family meals, and we may even forget that we like stopping for a moment to sit around the table with our loved ones. We forget the pleasure of sharing parts of our day with each other and as we forget these things, we do not realize what we lose with our busy schedules.

What would happen if we Christians became too busy to break bread together? Why does it matter so much to Jesus and consequently to us, that we take time to have communion? And if it is important for Christians to break bread, doesn’t that mean it is important for our families to do the same?

 When I think about my memories as a child, some of my favorite ones revolve around the dinner table. Those few precious times when my mother was able to be with us as we ate dinner. I can remember a lot of laughter as one of us did something silly that made the whole table laugh. I can remember having serious discussions with our mother about things that happened at school that day. And at church, some of my favorite memories were during the meals the church shared. It was fun eating spaghetti and garlic bread with people I didn’t see every day. I learned a lot in those times and it was wonderful to share something more than worship on Sunday with them.

Taking time out of our schedules to break bread is about more than remembering Jesus’ sacrifice for us. It reminds us that we are a family, one created through common beliefs and goals through Christ. When we commune together we share bits and pieces of our lives and we are better for it. The same thing is true for when we take time to break bread with our family. We need that time, we need that space. It is a holy time, even though most of us would never have imagined it that way.

But now we need to look at the fact that Jesus and his disciples could not get away to break bread together which is often the case for us as well. Jesus saw all of the crowds and he had compassion upon them. This is not the same thing as pity. Compassion literally means to suffer with a person. Jesus saw the people and their needs and he hurt for them and could not in good conscience, let them continue to suffer despite his own needs and desires in that moment. He put aside his own tiredness, hunger and pain to help them.

We, as a church, need to follow Jesus’ example. I know that we get tired of committees and meetings after a long day at work. Most of us have been consistory members and on every other committee at one time or another. We attend church every Sunday, a lot of you send your children and grandchildren to Sunday school too. These are all wonderful, good things to do. But they wear on us and eventually we become tired of doing these things.

Jesus and the disciples got tired too. They didn’t always want to go out and teach and preach to the people. Then, Jesus would see them. He’d see the pain on their wan faces, he’d see the hunger and tiredness they could not hide, and he suffered with them. He could not let them continue to be in pain. The church needs to be a place of healing and comfort. This needs to be a place where people come when they are hurting.

The fact that people do not think to come to church when they suffer is very telling. Shouldn’t the church be considered a place of rest and comfort to those that are lost? If people are finding more help from a book than they are their local church, we have our work cut out for us. Yes, sometimes we get tired and discouraged. Yes, there are going to be days of frustration and anger that more aren’t doing their share.

However, if as a church, we do nothing to help the people that are hurting, then we hurt ourselves too. That is the secret to this passage today. Jesus helped those people despite his own aches and needs because to leave them like they were not only hurt them, it hurt him too. Christians are supposed to love their brothers and sisters. If we truly love the people around us, we cannot blindly walk past them when they are in pain.

Sometimes that will mean putting aside going to the movies for the night or sitting down with a glass of wine after a long day. Yes, we deserve the break. Yes, we are tired and hurting ourselves. But the love we have for our fellow human beings requires sacrifice. If we only help when it is easy or when we have time and energy, then we are not proving anything. It is when we make time for others despite our own hurts that we show our love and compassion just as Jesus has done so many times.

It is then that people will see the church as a source of comfort and healing because there are people within the walls that will help no matter what. Loving others is about sacrifice. Jesus showed us that, and it is what we remember today as we break bread. Jesus died so that we may live, and he asks that we love people enough to help even when we are tired after a long day.

Amen.

Marked and Sealed

Amos7: 7-15
Eph1: 3-14

It is passages like this one in Ephesians that make many regular Christians throw up their hands in frustration about reading the bible on their own. It’s a very wordy text, full of words that seem to have many possible meanings and it can leave even those of us that have studied the bible extensively, scratching our heads. This is a passage that has caused a lot of controversy and discussion over the years because of words like predestination, adoption, inheritance, and redemption.

There are some people, like John Calvin, who consider this passage to confirm that there are certain people who are predestined to be saved. The idea of predestination is that a person does not get saved through their own merits, but through God’s will. This opens up the idea that there are those who will be saved even if they never accept Jesus into their hearts, or someone that has done awful things could already be predestined for heaven. Then there is the question of how are we to know who is predestined and who is not?

There is another theory where people believe when the author writes that we are predestined to adoption to sonship in Christ, that every human being has been predestined to be saved. The idea of universal salvation (everyone in the world is saved no matter religion, creeds or deeds) is appealing to those of us that think about loved ones that have passed, but were not exactly faithful Christians. This idea that everyone in the world is saved no matter what they do or believe, seems to make our faith and our response to God, immaterial. Since Jesus makes a point of saying we should have faith and that we are to respond to God with love for others, it doesn’t seem like this could be the correct definition of predestination.

The other theory on predestination is slightly different. Through Jesus Christ, every person is given the ability to be saved. However, salvation is given to those who respond to their adoption with faith and love for Jesus, and they are the ones that are given eternal life. This definition includes free will. We choose to accept the gift God wants to give us or we may decline it. The way we conduct our lives, shows God who we are and who we want to be.

The word adoption and sonship are very important as well. Through Jesus Christ, we are no longer just human beings who believe in God. We are welcomed into the family of God. We become brothers and sisters not just IN Christ but TO Christ. Think about this.. if we are Christ’s brother and sister, then our parent is God. When we accepted Jesus into our hearts, we were dropped smack dab in the middle of the family relationship and dynamics.

There are those of you out there that have either been adopted or adopted a child into your family. So you know and understand this better than most. Adoption is not about superficially adding a person to the family. When we adopt a child, we accept them into our hearts, into our lives and they become such a vital part of us that we cannot imagine life without them. I had someone tell me not too long ago that when they adopted their son, she loved him so much that sometimes she forgot he was adopted because it just wasn’t what was important. The important part was this child was a part of her life and she was a part of his. The love between the two is what mattered most, DNA mattered very little.

God feels the same way about all of us. We are God’s children, and as such, we are privileged to the same wonders and benefits that are given to Jesus. That is amazing, and also brings us to the word inheritance.

What do we receive as children of God? What is our inheritance? It’s not just salvation, as if that wasn’t enough on its own! When we chose to believe in Jesus, we were marked as God’s own and we were given a wonderful gift – the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a beautiful gift because it means we do not go through life alone. There are many of us sitting in these pews today who have known loneliness. That deep, abiding ache that empties and drains us of life. The sorrow and pain we feel that no one will understand what we have gone through. No one truly understands the person we are and the mistakes we have made, the things we want to accomplish and those we have not been able to.

But the Holy Spirit is a gift unlike any other. God’s Spirit, given to us the moment we profess belief in Jesus Christ. Through that Spirit, we are promised that never again will we walk alone. Never again will we be misunderstood and left to fight our demons by ourselves. We have a champion, we have a Savior, we have one that will mediate our prayers and concerns to God for us. The Holy Spirit, if we allow her too, will fill those empty, aching voids with the love of Christ, with the acceptance of God the Father, and will guide us right into God’s waiting arms.

Think of the Holy Spirit as your personal guide to heaven, your personal guide to eternity spent with God who loves you more than you could ever comprehend. Now that, my friends, is an inheritance!

The final word in this passage we will look at is redemption. Sometimes we call Jesus our Redeemer. We are redeemed through Christ. What does that mean? Who is it that we need to be redeemed for?

Not many of us will argue that humanity is full of flaws. We are prideful, arrogant, disdainful of others, and we lack compassion. These are just some of the many sins we commit daily. With such flaws, it would seem impossible to get to heaven on our own. It is why we needed Jesus Christ. God tried to help us become better people, offering covenant after covenant with us and always, we broke them. When he sent Jesus, he made a new covenant that is unbreakable. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, when he died he accepted all of humanity’s flaws as his own, he took the punishment we were meant to have.

Thus, we were redeemed in God’s eyes. When God looks at each of us, he does not see a sinful human being, but he sees His Son. He sees the blood Jesus spilled for us, the compassion Jesus has, and the love for the Son, becomes love for all. This is what adoption and redemption are all about. We truly are now one of God’s own children because God sees in each of us His very own Son.

This passage may be filled with a lot of big words and confusing sentences, but it is one of the most important we will discuss. Here, we learn about how we are saved and we learn about our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God loved his creation enough to send his Son, who loved us enough to take away our sins so that we would be given the chance to accept eternal life with the help and direction of the Holy Spirit. If you are ever again in doubt that God loves you, remember this passage, and remember what Jesus has done for you. You are not alone and you are not unloved. God is right by your side, now and always.

Amen.

Delight in Weakness

Ezekiel 2: 1-15
2 Corinthians 12:2-10

The Apostle Paul wrote much of the New Testament and many of the things he wrote were both as encouraging as they are puzzling. This passage in 2 Corinthians is no different. Paul is writing to the Corinthians to remind them to pay attention to what a prophet says and does. He is reminding them that there is more to God’s servants than just what they say, but he also reminds us that weakness is not always something we must be ashamed about.

In most societies, weaknesses are not something we see many people boasting of to others. We don’t often walk into a dinner party to hear the host say, “Thank you all for coming even though you know I cannot cook and we will all have heartburn later.” When we interview for a job, most employers will ask us what our strengths are and we gladly tell them, but when they ask about our weaknesses, we usually downplay them. Not many are going to say, “I don’t take direction well and my children often call me at work and distract me, causing me to make a few mistakes.”

In ancient times, it was no different. Weaknesses can be exploited and no one wants someone to take advantage of them. What could Paul possibly be trying to tell us when he says, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses… for when I am weak, then I am strong.”?

When a person finds themselves lacking in an area, they have two choices. They can either figure out a way to be better or they can accept help. There are some weaknesses that can never be fully overcome. Paul suffered from one such weakness and he prayed and begged God for years to take this burden from him, and each time was refused. Each of us has what we would call a thorn in our flesh the same as Paul. Something that has burdened our lives and kept us from accomplishing all the things we wish we could.

Perhaps it is a long illness such as cancer or MS. Perhaps you suffer from depression or have a problem controlling your temper. Perhaps you have a tendency to pick the wrong friends or the wrong partner. Perhaps you have become addicted to alcohol or drugs or pornography. Perhaps you are the type of person that does not feel complete unless you are needed and so you surround yourself with needy people. Perhaps you have a weakness for causing trouble or drama in your own life and others. Perhaps you are excessively proud and refuse to ask for help no matter how badly you need it.

Every one of us has a weakness; Paul says there is no shame in being weak. The reason he says this is because in our weakness we are forced to look to God for our strength. If this weakness refuses to leave us, the only person who is strong enough to help us is Jesus Christ. Paul tells us that he will boast of his weakness so that Christ’s power may rest over him. We too should not be ashamed of our weaknesses, but instead we should ask that God be with us as we fight against them.

Every year my grandmother, mom and I go on a vacation to Pittsburgh. This year we are going at the end of July. Every year we go out on the Gateway Clipper for their hour ride down the three rivers. During this ride, the captain gives little bits of information about the various buildings and landmarks. One year, I remember him telling us about the US Steel Building. When it was first built, the company used a new steel product where the steel starts off as a rusty orange color and then darkens as the years go by. Apparently, the reason for it darkening is that as the building is exposed to the elements the steel resists the effects of the wind, rain, snow, ice and fog by forming a coating of dark brown oxidation over the metal. The result being that every year that building is exposed to the things that weaken most other buildings, the US Steel building becomes more resistant; it becomes stronger.

If we are to become stronger despite the various weaknesses that we battle against, we need something to help us through. Without thorns in our flesh, human beings have a tendency to become conceited and mean. It is through our weaknesses that we learn to sympathize with others, it is through our shared pains that we are able to have compassion upon the rest of the world.

It does not make our painful moments any less hurtful. It does not make our weaknesses any less than another’s. But what we learn is to be human and that life is short and bittersweet. Jesus is God and yet he never threw his weight around while he walked among us. Jesus is always compassionate, always careful of other’s feelings, and always willing to help heal and soothe our pains away. How can God be so empathetic?

It is because God has experienced pain and hurt as well. Throughout the bible we see many times where humanity has turned away from God; many times where God cries out about our wickedness and how ungrateful we are to all God has done. God feels sorrow. God feels anger and sadness and pain. Just as we do. A God that loves so deeply cannot help but also feel sorrow and pain just as deeply.

There is a song I heard the other day by a group called Thompson Square. The words are quite beautiful and remind me of this passage in Corinthians and what Paul is trying to tell all of us.  It begins, Trying to live and love, With a heart that can't be broken, Is like trying to see the light with eyes that can't be opened. We may shine, we may shatter, We may be picking up the pieces here on after, We are fragile, we are human, We are shaped by the light we let through us, We break fast, because we are glass.

Paul does not dispute that there are many things in this world that cause us pain. Paul just reminds us that we need those weaknesses to help us from becoming fools, and to stop us from becoming hardened to the life of others. When Paul writes that in his weaknesses, he becomes strong; the words of the song really hit home. We are shaped by the light we let through us. We are shaped by the light of Jesus Christ, but only if we are willing to open our hearts to him. We are shaped by the people we meet, and the compassion we have upon each other.

The church is a place where we should recognize not only our strengths, but our weaknesses. It is a place where even though we all have hurts, even though all of us have done wrong, we are reminded that we are not here to judge. We each walk the road we’ve been given and here in this place, we have been brought together to do good works in Jesus’ name. In this church, our weaknesses are not failures, but become a way for us to grow stronger and closer to Jesus.

Amen.

The Goal is Equality

Lamentations 3
2 Corinthians 8

At this time of year we are often concerned with how hot the weather is and what picnics we will be attending. Our minds are on our vacations and our holidays. This is supposed to be the best time of our year when we can relax a little and let the weekends roll by in warm sunshine and laughter.

No one wants to hear about wildfires that have been brought on by this massive heat wave. No one wants to hear about the storms that have hit the East Coast and caused many to lose power for several days and even killed some people. No one wants to hear about an arsonist who might be a young teenager and has burned four homes, killing one person and ruining precious memories.

But these things still exist whether it is our time for summer vacation or not. These realities do not go away just because it is time for us to kick back and relax after a hard year of working. More than ever, the church needs to be vigilant in its work to make sure people like this are taken care of throughout the year, and not just when we have time for them.

That is what Paul is trying to tell the people in Corinth. Corinth could be considered Paul’s problem child. He founded the church and for the last year he has been trying to raise money to send to the church in Jerusalem that desperately needed it. There was a lot of persecution and suffering going on in that church, not unlike today.

At first, the Corinthian church was the first to give money, but then something happened. They lost interest with a church that was so far away from them and instead became more concerned with what was going on around them. Paul is writing this letter in the hopes of inspiring the people to remember that their commitment to God is not just about the things they can see, but the things they cannot.

Faith is about that. Jesus promises us that because we have not seen and yet we believe, our reward and help will be much more than what the disciples received because our faith will be richer. It takes a lot of faith and a lot of strength to continue to support a cause when we cannot see anything good coming from it.

It’s probably why we are so willing to give generously to help out things like Vacation Bible School, but sometimes find ourselves unwilling to give as generously to a mission that does not directly affect our lives and our children’s lives. But both Paul and Jesus are quite clear that God is asking something of us that requires more than a superficial faith.

God has asked us to feed his sheep. Jesus does not say which ones when he speaks to Peter. Jesus does not tell us anything about who the sheep are except to say that we are to love everyone and to treat everyone equally. Paul says the same thing when he tells the church in Corinth that the goal is equality. Some will reap a little and others will reap a lot. But those that reap a little will have just enough as will those that reap more.

Equality is a word that has special importance to Americans, especially on holidays like the one that is coming up this week. Independence Day, where we declare our freedom from tyranny and abuse. The day where we declare all men and women equal in the eyes of the government and in the eyes of the people. This is the day where we celebrate, remember, and recognize the gifted people that set up our democratic government and those that gave their lives not just to create it, but to keep it safe for the last 250 years.

However, there is a problem that has developed in last hundred years as we seek for more and more equality for everyone. People have become so enamored with equality for all, that they have forgot about the collective. Nowhere in the Bible does God talk about the people as individuals. God is always speaking of “My People” or “My sheep”. In the United States, we say we are one people, but the divisions are many and growing.

We are divided in our ideas on politics to such a degree that the two major parties have refused to work together to benefit the good of everyone. We are divided in our finances to such a degree that there is resentment between those who have a lot and those who have a little even when the money has been earned honestly and with hard work. We are divided in our religious ideals to such a degree that new denominations and churches pop up all over the place because no one can agree on things that should not matter as much as we have made them matter.

With such divides, it seems impossible that we can create equality among the masses. How do we breach such chasms? How do we go from being separated to being united after all that has passed to cause these divisions?

Paul tells us that we must take stock of what we have done and what we are still able to do. The church in Corinth began to do great things and then they got caught up in their individuality. Paul reminds them that churches that have a whole lot less than they have given much more to the cause in Jerusalem. He says this to them, not to cause resentment or envy, but to remind them that those who give, will surely receive God’s blessing and thanks.

It’s okay to be different from the rest of the world. It’s okay to have your own agenda and ideas. Differences help to bring out the best. That is why America has always been so proud to be called a Melting Pot – we proposed that our differences did not stop us from creating a great country and it did not stop us from working together.

Until recently. In the last quarter century we have seen the divides widen and we have seen differences that used to be celebrated become scorned. We see the same things happening in our churches and in our families. Why have our hearts become so hardened to others and their thoughts, ideas, and needs? What has created this painful break that is starting to feel inevitable and unstoppable?

Jesus reminds us that we are to love one another without restrictions. Jesus wanted equality for all of us. Paul reminds us that even in our financial dealings we should give without restriction because it will create equality. Throughout the Bible we are reminded that we are to open our hearts and our homes and our churches to everyone without restriction because it will create equality.

I think the day we stopped doing these things is the day the chasm began to grow deeper. When we stopped thinking as an US and started thinking as I. It is not just the government that does this, but the church does it as well. It happened two thousand years ago and it happens today. The only way to stop it is to go back to what Jesus and Paul tell us to do. We are to love others, to give generously and to accept others so that there might be equality among us. So that there might be unity and faith and joy for all people.

I pray it is not too late for this country or for God’s church to reconcile. Instead of celebrating our differences this Independence day, let us celebrate how so many different people could create one beautiful and successful country. Instead of being concerned with what happens only in this church or our denomination, let us celebrate how the many churches lift up their voices on Sunday to sing praises to God, to love the one that loved us first by giving His life for our own. Jesus is the one that made us all equal before God, it is up to us to create equality among all people.

Amen.