Jesus' Expectations

2Kings2: 1-2, 6-14

Luke 9:  51-62

What do you want from your church? What do you expect from your fellow church members and your pastor? What do you expect from your community?

We all have expectations and desires for the way we want things to go here. Some we can make happen, and others may never happen. Today in Luke we read about the cost of following Jesus, and how sometimes Jesus shows us that our expectations are not his expectations. We read about how a whole community rejected Jesus not because of what he taught, not because of how he looked, not because of who others had proclaimed him to be, but because his face was turned toward Jerusalem and they were against all the people that lived there. The Samaritans and the Jews were not always friendly with each other. They had major divides in their religious beliefs that kept them from seeing each other as people; people with something to offer.

Jesus and his disciples approach this community and at first they walked in to a friendly crowd. Then someone asked them where they had been and where they were headed next. As soon as the words, “We’re on our way to Jerusalem” came out of the men’s mouths, the people shut down. They turned and walked away. Nothing mattered except that this man and his disciples were headed to a completely different place than the Samaritans thought they should be headed.

There is a lesson to be learned here. Who do we turn away from because of where we think they are headed? Who do we treat with less respect than they deserve because of what we believe about them? How are we failing to be Jesus Christ to those that walk a different path than us?

The disciples were angry at the immediate rejection of Jesus by the people. They looked to each other and they began to grumble like people do. Then they began to gather in groups of two or three to share their complaints about these awful, rude Samaritans. Finally, all of them were feeling hurt and betrayed and upset so they turn to Jesus and say, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and destroy them?”

That’s some serious hurt the disciples are feeling. In the three years they have been with Jesus they have learned tolerance and love from him when everyone else wants to stone sinners and throw Jesus off cliffs for daring to teach with authority. They have learned how patient Jesus is with those who do not understand his message, they have heard his wisdom over and over again. Yet, when faced with these rude people who have hurt their pride, everything inside of the disciples rebels against what Jesus has taught them for three years. They want retribution. They want vengeance. They want to hurt these people as much as they have been hurt!

Sound familiar? People who have not grown up or worked in a church have no idea how things go behind the scenes. The truth is there is a lot more dysfunction IN the church than there is outside of it. Perhaps because we don’t want to offend people and so we quietly complain about what Ms. Susie is teaching in her classroom or about Old Al who always snores in the back pew. We talk about how Clarise is mad at the pastor for something, but won’t tell the pastor because she doesn’t want to make waves, but she’ll tell everyone else that will listen so that eventually – the pastor WILL find out. We gossip about how Albert and June have joined this committee or that committee, but never show up. We complain about how we can’t get volunteers and about who hasn’t come to church lately and why that might be.

Then the quiet murmurs and gossip become something much bigger; it goes from two or three complaining to the whole church. The grumblings become louder, the complaints more forceful and it all becomes the cause of hurt and frustration as people act out against each other. They turn away from each other because they think they know where that person is coming from and they don’t need to hear anymore. We stop listening. We stop caring. We stop being Christians and instead become petty, hurt people. The disciples allowed their hurt for the way they and Jesus were treated to make them petty, mean people.

They truly wanted those villagers to suffer. Raining down fire is serious business! It will hurt the people’s homes; it will kill livestock and destroy the peace in the community, and may even kill the people themselves. The disciples didn’t care about the havoc they would create if Jesus said yes to their suggestion. All they could see in that moment of hurt and anger was that they had been treated disrespectfully and they were NOT going to stand for it! This was the last straw! No longer will these people treat them with ignorance because they would demand respect by terrorizing them.

It’s easy to feel superior as we read this story and think we would never be so hasty to hurt someone because of the way they treated us, but I want you to take a moment and think. Look back at this last week, at this last month, at your whole life. Have you never hit out because you’ve been hit? Have you never said awful words about someone, true or not, because of how they have hurt you? Have you never done anything that has caused another pain because you decided they deserved to be hurt?

We pass judgment on others constantly. We pretend that because we come to church we are more enlightened and more caring. It’s not always truth though. The truth is that we are just as human as those disciples and sometimes things get to be too much and we strike back. We retaliate and we escalate the problem further with our actions.

Jesus reminds us that this is not the way we are to behave and it is not the way the church is to behave. He rebukes the disciples for their thoughts and angry words and then simply walks to the next village where they would be received warmly. That village lost out that day, not Jesus or the twelve! Jesus would have come to them and taught them the word of God. He would have healed their illnesses and removed their infirmities. He would have cast out demons and blessed their homes. But because all they could see is that he was headed to a place they hated, they turned away from all the goodness and blessing he offered them.

Jesus teaches us that we are often too hasty with our judgments and because we judge so harshly we miss out on so much while causing more problems for ourselves. We do it in our private lives and we do it here at church. We judge and condemn, and then we exact retribution. Jesus shows us that if we would forgive those that have hurt us and simply walk away from them, that we not only are the better people for it, but the one that hurt us are left without a foot to stand on.

As soon as we hit back, we give the person who hurt us justification for their actions. We give them leverage and the ability to keep hurting us. If we ignore them, if we forgive them, if we talk about it with them – we take the power away from them, and put it back into our own hands. We are in charge of our destiny. We are in charge of how we behave. There will come a day when we all stand before the Lord and we will look back at our life. Jesus will turn to you and ask, “Why did you do this?” and how, HOW will you justify the way you acted and reacted to those around you?

Think about when your children and grandchildren stood before you when they had fought with their brother or sister, or done something wrong, and you asked them “Why?”. I want you to think about their responses. The sullen look, the pout on their face as they mutter, “Well, SHE started it!” or “I didn’t mean to do it!” is that what you will say to Jesus? Is that how you will justify treating others with disrespect and making them hurt? Or will you stand there silent and humiliated because you knew better but couldn’t control yourself despite the many years you sat in these pews listening about love and forgiveness? Are you so different from the disciples who stood beside Jesus day after day, and couldn’t see past their indignation to remember the lessons he had taught?

I understand how hurt becomes anger and anger becomes bitterness. I understand how hard it is to walk away from those that have hurt you. I’m not always good at it myself, but Jesus unequivocally tells us that is what he wants us to do. Walk away and let Jesus do the judging. That person will also stand before Jesus and have to justify how they hurt YOU. Remember that and take comfort that you do not need your retribution today, that Jesus is the great equalizer. He makes us all equal and therefore that person’s day will come to be judged and they will be sentenced. Do not hurt others just because you have been hurt. Do not reign fire down upon those who would turn you away because of who and what you are.

Do not be like them. Be like Jesus.

Amen.

Judge Not, Lest You be Judged

Galatians 2:15-21
Luke 7:36 – 8:3

Hospitality. Love. Forgiveness. Grace.

Each of these can be found in this story of Simon, Jesus, and the sinful woman. These are all things we need throughout our lives and they are what Jesus offers to us and asks us to offer to others as well.

The story begins with the need to eat. We all need food to survive, and it was a well known practice in ancient times to offer hospitality to the visiting travelers, especially the ones that were well known. Jesus is invited to come for a meal at Simon the Pharisee’s home. This suggests that Simon was not completely against Jesus and his teachings like many of the Pharisees were and it tells us that Simon wanted to get to know Jesus better. What better way than through a nice, civilized dinner?

As Jesus is sitting at Simon’s table, dusty and weary from the long day of walking, healing, and preaching a woman slowly approaches. We only know a little bit about this woman. She heard that Jesus had arrived in town and where he was eating his meal. We know that she is a sinful woman and that everyone in town knows she is sinful. We have no idea what makes her sinful. Some have read this text and suggested she was a prostitute. I disagree. The bible has no trouble calling a woman a prostitute when that is her profession, but the writer does not do that here.

What we do know is that whatever this woman’s sin is; it is public and known by everyone. How awful that must have been! In a society that reveres lawfulness and purity, to be known as an openly sinful person must have been agony. It immediately made her an outcast and despised. No clean person would want to be around her and that would mean she’d have trouble supporting herself. Every day she would have been cursed at, perhaps spit upon, looked on with contempt and superiority by the others that lived in the town. She was unclean. She was unworthy. She was beneath their notice.

Perhaps that is why she was able to successfully get so close to Jesus. No one wants to notice the outcasts, the lowly ones in society in case it brings attention to themselves and their lives. When a person deliberately pays attention to the least among us, they bring unwanted scrutiny and gossip to their own life. They may even be made an outcast themselves and so it was imperative to ignore those people and to treat them harshly when they came near.

Who are the outcasts in our society? Who are the people you think of with utter contempt and disgust? Don’t pretend there isn’t some person or group of people that you cannot stand. Be honest with yourself and with God. Let’s go through the hot topics of our society. Illegal aliens. Welfare users and abusers. Government officials. Muslims. Gay people. Fat people. The Rich. The Poor. Models. Criminals.  Reality tv stars. Wall Street workers. Black people. Latinos and Hispanics. Japanese and Chinese people. The woman that always wins the blue ribbon and you come in second. The man that always gets promoted ahead of you. We have biases toward others. There are people we cannot stand and we treat them as Simon and that town treated the sinful woman – as beneath our notice and deserving of our contempt.

Finally, the sinful woman gets close enough to Jesus that she can actually touch him. She probably meant to take her jar of perfume and anoint his head which is the normal custom. However, she is overcome with tears. No one has ever treated her with kindness and respect, but Jesus does. No one has ever looked past her sins and seen the real woman, and cared. Jesus did. No one had ever forgiven her for her mistakes, no one had ever shown her a different way to be – but Jesus does and did.

Because of the way the tables are low to the floor, Jesus’ feet were the closest thing to her and her tears fell upon his dirty feet. The traditional custom when you invite a person into your home is to offer them water to wash their feet because it is a dusty land and sandals offer little protection. Simon had not seen to Jesus’ comfort. Simon was too busy judging Jesus and the woman to heed such a simple hospitality that shows respect and caring.

Put yourself in that woman’s place. She cannot stop crying, the tears are falling so fast that she literally takes her hair down and is now able to bath Jesus’ feet with her tears of gratitude. Then she kisses his feet, over and over again, before taking the costly jar of perfume and anoints his feet with it. That perfume may have cost her her next week of meals, but she takes it and she pours it upon him. She shows the hospitality and love that Simon had forgotten while he was busy judging everyone around him as inferior.

Who are we forgetting to help and love and accept because we’re so busy judging them as sinful? Who are we to consider another person more sinful than us? Do you never do anything wrong? Have you never done something you’re ashamed of and if anyone found out you’d be humiliated? Are you without sin? Are your sins less than another person’s that you can judge them so completely and without mercy? Would you want the world to know your sins and judge you that way?

Jesus understood what the woman was going through and he allowed her to show her love and appreciation for his mercy. Jesus knew what Simon was thinking and he had a message for him and for all of us that would think to judge other people. He tells Simon that there were two people who were given money by a lender. One had been loaned a little bit of money and the other a lot, but neither of them could pay the man back. The man graciously forgave both loans. Jesus asks, “Who do you think is more grateful?”

“The one who was forgiven a lot.” Simon replied. And Jesus nods his head and tells Simon, “Whoever has been forgiven little, loves little.” In other words, those of us that think we are better than others have not the capacity for love like the ones that know they are sinful and have been forgiven. In other words, those people who constantly forgive others for their waywardness, for their sinfulness know God’s love more than those of us that keep judging people because of what little we know about their lives.

None of us are perfect. We make many mistakes. The biggest one we make is our inability to see that there is no such thing as a saint. The contempt and disgust we bring upon others hurts them. It makes them feel less than they should. It is not love. It is not acceptance. It is not forgiveness. Therefore, it is not being a Christian. Jesus Christ is the only saint this world has ever known. Jesus Christ never judged a person based upon their sins, but on their willingness to change. He showed them a better way to live and he helped them to be better.

Do not judge others. Do not look down upon anyone because you do not want Jesus to look down upon you. What we should be doing is trying to help those people we have kept down. We should be trying to lift them up and show them the love and mercy that Jesus constantly shows us.

You may think you have legitimate reasons for being disgusted with another person or a group of people, but Jesus has just as much reason to be disgusted with you. The beauty of the Gospel is that he isn’t disgusted. Jesus loves you with all of his heart, with all of his soul, and with all of his mind. Jesus loves that person you hate - just as much, whether you like it or not.

The truth is that Jesus died for the whole world. We are called to share that good news and make sure to give everyone as many second chances as they need so that they get to heaven too. Whether we get along with them or not. Whether we agree with them or not. We are called to share that Gospel with them. We are called to share God’s love and forgiveness with them. Do not judge unless you’re willing to be judged yourself.

Amen. 

Come Out of the Wilderness

1Kings 17: 8-24
Luke 7: 11-17

Elijah is in the middle of the wilderness when he hears God’s voice telling him to go to Zarephath. Considering the country is in the middle of a drought, Elijah had to be excited to be told to get out of the heat despite the ravens that had been bringing him bread and meat while he was out there. The wilderness is a scary place to be, and when God takes us to such places, we are often there to learn something. Usually it is about depending on God for what we have been trying to do alone.

Elijah hears God’s voice and it says to go to this town that is in the country of Queen Jezebel who Elijah happened to be at odds with at the time. Elijah couldn’t have been too happy to hear that he was about to enter an enemy’s home turf, and then on top of that he is told to go see a widow. This wouldn’t have been welcome news if the country hadn’t been in drought, but it was even less welcome now.

Widows were powerless people. Without a man to give her societal status, Elijah knew she would have very little to offer him in the way of comfort and sustenance in normal times, and even less during a drought. Elijah was probably tempted to stay in the wilderness with the ravens. There he knew what he was dealing with; he could handle the wilderness because he had been doing it for some time. This new journey God was leading him on just might be his death.

We understand what Elijah is going through in this moment. Think about where you are in your life right now. What is it that has been giving you problems lately? Are you going through a wilderness experience just like Elijah and Moses and Abraham have gone through? The wilderness is a place of struggle and testing. Wilderness experiences strip you of all of your defenses and leave you vulnerable and hurting. They force you to adapt and change. They require you to learn from your past mistakes so that you may move forward to something new and better. And until you learn to do that, you will stay in that place of struggle and hurting.

Sometimes though, we want to stay. Not because we like being miserable and not because we are having fun in these places. No, we want to stay because we know this place. We are familiar with the pains and the hurts and the struggles. We know how to navigate through these particular problems because they have plagued us our whole life in different ways.

For some of us, we love too easily and get our hearts broken. For some of us, we have been hurt so much that we doubt every person’s real intentions. For some of us, the wilderness is a place where we walk in circles like Moses and the Israelites, trying something new and making the same mistakes over and over again - perhaps in our work or our relationships or with our friends and family. Some of us are desperate to be accepted and so we pretend to be things we aren’t to get friends and lovers. Some of us refuse to trust and so we deliberately alienate ourselves from those who could hurt us. Some of us pick partners that hurt us emotionally or physically because we think we do not deserve any better. Some of us find jobs and careers that we know will keep us busy so we do not have to go home at night.

Every person in this room has a wilderness that they continually come back to. There is something in your life where you struggle and hurt and constantly return too. God does not leave us alone during these times. God sends us our own ravens to help us be fed and sheltered. And God also continually calls to us; trying to bring us out of this desert and back into a healthy life.

Sometimes we are so deep in our misery that we do not hear God’s voice. Sometimes we deliberately ignore that voice because we’re scared. We’re scared that as bad as it is right now, what the future holds will be worse if we move on. If we let go of what has been holding us back, we have to move forward and moving forward means change. Change is scary. Change can hurt, matter of fact, it often hurts.

What if it is worse than what we are going through now? What if we decide to leave our abusive spouse and end up homeless or with someone that is even worse than he or she ever was? What if we leave our job that makes us miserable and the place we end up is twice as bad? What if we go back to school and when we graduate we cannot get a job? What if we stop hounding our grandkids to come to church and they never again step through these doors? What if we take out that loan and cannot pay it? What if we have that surgery and it makes things worse?

Fear holds us captive in the wilderness. Fear paralyzes all of our good intentions and leaves us drowning in our current misery; trying to be content with what little we have in our lives. Let me remind you of something. Jesus never minded when the disciples doubted his words, what made Jesus absolutely furious was their fear. Doubt is healthy because it keeps us cautious, and helps us think and grow. Fear stops all growth. Fear stops all faith. Fear reduces us to nothing if we let it. Fear will keep us going around in circles, constantly miserable and constantly hurting.

Is that what you want?

It isn’t want Elijah wanted. When he hears God’s voice calling him to go to the place of his enemies and to a widow’s home, he went. I’m sure he grumbled and drug his feet, but Elijah went. When he got there it was even worse than he feared. The widow was gathering sticks to make the last of the bread she had so her son and her could die. She had given up all hope of living.

Elijah must have been ready to scream at God for bringing him to such a hopeless place, but he looks at this poor widow and he says, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and make your meal as you were going to, but first make me a small loaf of bread, and bring it to me. The Lord God will not let the jar of flour or the jug of oil to go dry until rain falls upon this land.”

Elijah’s worst fears, our worst fears seem to be realized when he comes upon this woman making her last meal. God has brought us out of the wilderness only to die in the enemy’s land! What trickery is this?! But Elijah summons up his faith; the faith that had brought him here to begin with, and he tells the woman and most likely himself to not be afraid.

Where God leads us is where we are meant to be. If God calls you to a new place or to something new it is because there is something for you there. It does not mean it will be easier than what came before, but it does mean that God will be faithful to you as you have been faithful to God. Elijah and the widow and her son do not go hungry. The jug of oil and the jar of flour are never depleted. Every morning there is enough to feed them. It wasn’t a feast, but it kept them nourished. God kept the promises made to them both.

God will keep the promises that were made to you. Listen to your heart. Truly listen. What is God telling you to do? Where is God telling you to go? What is God telling you to give up so that you may be free to accept something new? Open your mind to the possibilities and accept that although it may not be easy, God will not abandon you. If you remain faithful to God’s voice; you will be exactly where you are meant to go. You will be doing exactly what you are meant to be doing. Don’t let your fears paralyze you. Don’t let your fears reduce you to a shadow of who you really are and the person God sees when looking at you. 

Come out of the wilderness. God is calling for you.

Amen. 

Idol Worship

1 Kings 18: 20-39

 Galatians 1: 1-12

If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal is God, follow him.

Elijah throws down a gauntlet on this day to all the people who have been worshiping the god Baal because of the drought that had surrounded the land for the last three years. The Israelites were fed up with the drought and decided to follow King Ahab and Queen Jezebel’s lead and began to worship their gods in the hope that these additional prayers to another god would bring on rain to their parched land.

However, what they ended up doing is making the Lord very mad. Elijah comes to the King and Queen and asks them to assemble the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah to Mount Carmel. Elijah had a plan, and it was inspired by God. When all the prophets and the people of Israel had come up to Mt Carmel, Elijah stood before them and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal is God, follow him.”

For Elijah it was that simple, however it was not so simple to the people. Drought is hard. It makes food scarce and fires rage; it brings doubt and heartache to everyone. If God loves the people so much, why is the Lord letting them suffer like this? Perhaps it is better to worship all the gods in the hope one of them will answer since the Lord seems rather quiet lately in response to all our prayers.

Does this sound familiar?

I’ve prayed and prayed to God about this and I never hear a thing back. Is Jesus really listening? Does God care at all about me and my problems? Is Jesus busy helping someone else and doesn’t have time for me? Maybe I should stop praying and do whatever I have to do to fix the problem on my own.

We’re not so different from the people of Israel. We get fed up with God’s perceived silences as well. We turn to other things to help us cope with our problems, with our issues, with our troubles. We call it being logical and practical and sensible. Elijah wants nothing to do with the practical and logical and sensible. He has ultimate faith in the Lord and he assembles all of the prophets and the people to witness what the difference is between gods like Baal and the Lord God.

First, he tells them he is the only prophet the Lord has left compared to the 450 Baal has standing here today. Then he asks for two bulls and allows the Baal prophets to choose which bull would please their god. So they do and each prepare their bull by cutting it up into pieces and putting kindling around for a fire, but Elijah asks them to not light the fire yet. He tells them that they will each call on their god and see which one responds and lights the fire for the sacrifice.

Everyone agreed that this was a great plan and they began their work. The Baal prophets called upon Baal from the morning until noon for the god to light the fire at the altar with no response. After awhile, Elijah is starting to get a little fed up and begins to taunt the prophets. “Shout louder! Perhaps your god is busy or deep in thought or out travelling! Maybe he’s sleeping and needs to be awakened!”

Elijah did this for two reasons. He wanted them to believe that they had done everything they could possibly have done to make Baal respond if he was a true god, and he was also fed up watching these people worship a god that wasn’t real. They were worshipping an idol.

Sometimes when we are paying attention, we can recognize when others are worshipping idols as well. We see extreme examples in the news and social media all the time. When young girls swoon over singers like Justin Bieber and One Direction, and spend more time mooning over pictures of these young men than they do praying to God. When we see adults posting a constant stream of political hate on facebook instead of praying to God to unite our country. When we see grandparents more concerned with the tattoos and piercings their grandchildren have instead of praying the graduates will get a job after they leave university in this tough economy. When we see a person so engrossed in their smartphone that they miss what is happening around them like their child’s homerun or the hurt on their date’s face because they didn’t hear a word they just said. When a person is so consumed with making money or losing weight or spreading gossip or whatever it else that consumes people instead of being consumed by thoughts of God.

We create idols today just like the Israelites created an idol to worship during the drought. We don’t call them idols or gods anymore, but when we spend more time thinking about those things like what we will watch on television tonight or what we will wear to work tomorrow than we do concerning ourselves with what God wants we have created an idol. We too often think that these things can make us happy and satisfy us. The problem is that they do for awhile. For a little while it is enough to do these things and we will feel satisfied, but it is when the real problems come that we find ourselves turning back to God and wondering when we lost touch with the Lord.

Elijah decides that there will be no more idol worshipping. He is putting a stop to all of this talk about Baal ending the drought and being the true god. After a whole day of the prophets calling out to Baal without a response, Elijah ask them to follow him to the altar that had been torn down. He repairs the Lord’s altar and sets the kindling and meat on it. Then he asks them to pour water over top of it all. Not once, not twice, but three times until water has filled the trench dug around the altar and the kindling and meat are completely soaked.

Remember, Elijah is out to prove a point! He has them soak the altar because NO human could make that sacrifice burn with how much water lay around it. He has them soak the altar because it is a time of drought and Elijah is saying that this precious water will be used because he trusts in God to bring the rain to end the drought just as much as he trusts the Lord to light this fire today when Elijah calls upon the Lord’s name.

Then Elijah says a simple prayer. He calls upon the Lord with a two sentence prayer, heartfelt and plainly spoken. There was nothing fancy in what he said or did. He did not shed his blood as the Baal prophets did. He did not dance around the altar. He did not wear a fancy robe. He did not light candles or listen to certain music. He prayed. The Lord answered.

The fire of the Lord came down upon the altar and burnt everything. The kindling, the meat, the water in the trench, and the stones surrounding it – everything was consumed by the fire. Suddenly, the people fell to their knees and began to worship the Lord again.

God is not going to do the same thing here today to make you let go of your idols. Only you can make that choice. You know the things you worship more than you do Jesus. You know the things that you let consume your thoughts and days. You know the things that you have more faith in than you do the Lord. Someone asked me the other day how I have faith all the time. How did I get so blessed?

The truth is that faith is not something that is given. Faith is an action. It’s hard work. It’s a response to our belief in the Lord. The more we believe in God and what God can do, the more we find faith helps us through the rougher moments of our lives. It does not mean we do not doubt, but we do not let our doubts turn us to idols. And when we do find ourselves worshipping things more than we do God, our deep belief in Jesus is what helps us to recognize these failings and get back on track and back to being faithful to the Lord again.

Elijah asks them a question and I will ask you the same: How long will you waver between two opinions? How long will you try to worship both the Lord and material things?

Amen.