Back to Basics

Jeremiah 31: 27-34
2 Timothy 3: 14-4:5

Wisdom. It comes from many sources and we sometimes follow people and listen to what they say because we assume they are knowledgeable. However, later we find out that they didn't know as much as we thought or as much as they proclaimed to know, and we end up in trouble. The passage in 2 Timothy is a reminder to a young man just starting out that the one place we can always go for truth is in the scriptures.

We are never too old to go back to the source of all knowledge, understanding, and truth. In fact, if we want to be wise and knowledgeable the only place to go is to the Bible. There, we find God's word and a place where people who were just like us somehow made it work. You're probably wondering how I could say they were just like us when some of the people have not lived for over 4,000 years, therefore, I will explain.

Humanity has always had the same basic needs and desires throughout our existence. We also have the same reactions and sins as a result. And so, in the Bible we see people who are scared and worried and stressed out. We see people who have taken on too much and we see others who are too lazy to take on anything. We see true believers in God  and we see the doubters. We see true evil and we see exceptional goodness. Just like today. Ronald Reagan once said, " Within the covers of one single book, the Bible, are all the answers to all the problems that face us today--if only we would read and believe."

And so we need to turn to the Bible, to the words that we can read over and over again, and they are still relevant. Every day that we are alive, we wake up a different person. Don't believe me? Think about what happened to you yesterday after you woke up. For some of you, perhaps you heard of someone you loved who is ill or died. For others, perhaps you found out your child just got a scholarship and will now be moving a thousand miles away to go to school. For some of you, you had a fight with your spouse and although you're here together today you're still not speaking to each other. Everything that happens to us throughout the day changes who we are even if it is only by the tiniest bit. It is like water against rocks, the way the changes so slowly appear.

However, just like water has the ability to carve a passage through solid stone such as the Grand Canyon, each day creates a new person and some days the changes are more noticeable than others. And that means each time we pick up the Bible, we pick it up as a new person that will read it just a little bit differently and from a slightly different perspective. It will continue to speak to who we are, as we are now. That's the Holy Spirit. That's the God-breathed words that were put into the Bible. That is why it is so important to keep reading the Bible.

I knew an elder who loved acronyms and he told the congregation once that he believes the bible to be Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth -BIBLE. If these are instructions, and with life as complicated as it is, then it pays to keep reading those instructions as our life changes!

When a couple's son left for his freshman year at Duke University, his parents gave him a Bible, assuring him it would be a great help. Later, as he began sending them letters asking for money, they would write back telling him to read his Bible, citing chapter and verse. He would reply that he was reading the Bible--but he still needed money. When he came home for a semester break, his parents told him they knew he had not been reading his Bible. How? They had tucked $10 and $20 bills by the verses they had cited in their letters. 

We are not good at reading the Bible. We give a  lot of reasons. We have a ton of excuses. The truth is that we have become lazy in our faith and although that is hard to hear, it doesn't make it less true. For all of us. We could easily be the couple's son because there are many times when we should be reading our bible and instead we're complaining about our life. In the Bible we are given instructions, guidance, and we not only learn more about the Lord, but we learn more about who we are as one of God's children. It comes from those "ah hah!" moments that we get at times as we read scripture like it was the first time.

In those moments we receive an epiphany, a true moment of understanding of who God is and who we are in relation to God. It's beautiful. It's amazing. We enjoy and want those experiences and yet, we often neglect the very thing that would give us those moments. For a whole year, I did not have Bible study because no matter what day I offered it on or what time I asked, not many stepped forward to come and toward the end of the second year I had only one faithful person coming. Did you know, no one complained when I didn't offer it last year? No one even mentioned it to me. During my evaluation this year, I thought for sure one of the complaints about me would be about no bible study.

That was not brought up once. In the Bible is salvation. There is forgiveness. There is mercy and love of untold measure being offered to us inside its pages.

This year I am offering Bible Study again. Not because  anyone asked, but because I know as your pastor that this is where life is; this is where the hope of the church rests. If we begin reading our bibles again, perhaps we will stop complaining about the petty things in our lives and in this church and start concentrating on what is important - making sure every single person we know also knows Jesus Christ.

Do you want your life to change? Do you want your children's lives to be better? Do you want your grandchildren's lives to be good? Pick up that bible and begin to read it. Read it silently. Read it out loud to them. Shout it from the rooftops if that's what you're into, but read it. No more excuses. No more saying you don't understand or it's too long or you're just not a reader. They have it as an audio cd now. Listen to it in the car instead of music. Read a chapter in the bible at night instead of that gossip magazine or crime novel. Then pray about it.

Do you know why I pray before every sermon and ask the Holy Spirit to be with us? Because I'm human. You're human. We make mistakes and we screw up and we need God here with us if this sermon is going to reach everyone. I'm not going to have an interesting sermon every week. I'm not going to always say things in the right way - but if I ask the Holy Spirit to be here, I know that my weak illustrations and poor writing skills won't matter nearly as much because the Holy Spirit will help each of you to hear what you need to for this week.

And as we read the Bible and as we pray about it, we can discover that the Holy Spirit will show us what the truth is - we will begin to understand more about God, more about who we are and more about those around us. We will become better. We will become more like Jesus and Jesus never sinned. The author of today's letter to Timothy knew that he wasn't going to have an easy life at this new church. He knew Timothy was bound to make a lot of mistakes as many young pastors do.

But he gave him and us sound advice. Turn to the Bible. Pray to God. Love with intensity those that would hurt you. And by doing this you will become better. You will reach others. You will make a difference in this world. These words are written not just to Timothy, but to each of us here today. 

Read your Bible and pray to God. In there you will find forgiveness for all your sins, you will receive mercy for your mistakes, and you will find love beyond anything you could imagine without the Bible. It will teach you that if you want to be a Christian, then what is offered in the Bible are the very same things you need to be offering each other. Forgiveness, mercy, and love because there is redemption there.

The more we treat others like Jesus treated us, the more we become the children of God. The way to know Jesus is to know the Bible. The only way to know the Bible is to read it. So.. get reading!

Amen.

Double the Outcast, Double the Healing

2Kings 5:1-3, 7-15

Luke 17: 11-19

Last week we talked about how faith is not something we create on our own, but is given to us by God. Faith is affected by our belief in the kind of God we have and who we consider ourselves to be as disciples of Christ. If we believe that God does not care about what happens to us in our lives, then we will not see the blessings we have as gifts from God. If we believe that everything we have is given to us according to God's love and grace for us then we begin to see the world with different eyes. We see that life is not hopeless and that there are things we can do to help others to know there is mercy and love waiting for them too.

Many things in our life are affected by our faith and beliefs. In this passage we read today, ten men's lives are changed because of their beliefs, and one man's soul is changed because of his faith. Let's explore what is different about the one compared to the other nine.

Jesus is walking through an area not many Jews would travel because it puts them close to the Samarian border and therefore close to Samarians. Jews and Samarians were not each other's favorite people. Considering our government's state the last few weeks it would be like a democrat walking down the republicans' hallway in the Senate - barely will a civil word be spoken and they will try to avoid each other like they have the plague!

But there goes Jesus, skirting convention and deciding to do what no one else would consider doing. As he comes to a village, there are ten men afflicted with various skin diseases and they approach him timidly, making sure to keep their distance because they know no one wants to be around them and possibly contract what they have. It doesn't stop them from making themselves known to him, however. They keep their distance, but call out to him, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!".

These people were lepers, outcasts from society because of their diseases and considered unclean and unfit for society. They are being incredibly daring to even come that close to the man called Jesus that has become known as a great prophet in the area. But then, they do not call him teacher like so many do - they call him Master. These outcasts, these men that are unfit for society see something in Jesus that those that have been following him and studying his every move have not noticed. Jesus is more than a prophet. He's more than a teacher. They believe in Jesus and his power to heal and they call him their Master. They also appeal to Jesus' kind nature and beg him to have mercy on them.

It seems like the one sure way to get God's attention is to ask for mercy. They receive Jesus' attention and immediately he calls to them, "go and show yourselves to the priests." Now, this is an odd remark to make because they are not healed yet. The only ones that can pronounce a person fit for society are the priests, but how can they proclaim these ten men clean when they have not been healed of their diseases yet? But again, the ten men understand Jesus' power and command, and they obey him.

They begin to walk to the priests and as they walked, their skin conditions were healed. Remember how last week I mentioned that faith is belief plus action and confidence? As these ten men walked toward the priests without any assurance of being called fit for society, their belief and bold actions proclaim their faith in Jesus' power to heal, and they are cleansed of their diseases.

This by itself is a remarkable story of Jesus' kindness and generosity, and of the kind of faith that acts upon its belief. Then something else happens! As the ten men walk along, one of them notices he has been healed, and immediately turns around! He stops walking to the priest and toward societal acceptance, and instead he walks back to Jesus looking for Godly acceptance instead.

This one man, he turns back to Jesus and he begins to thank him profusely while shouting praise God with a loud voice so everyone can hear. And who was the lone man that came back to say thank you? He was a Samaritan. He was a foreigner. He was one of those people that Jews considered beneath them. Jesus looks at this man praising God loudly, who has not sought out the priests so that he can go back to his family, but instead he has found Jesus to give him thanks and he remarks, "Were not ten made clean? Where are the other nine? Is no one else going to praise God except this foreigner?"

What was Jesus' tone as he spoke this to the man at his feet? Was he sad? Was he angry? Was he disheartened or surprised? Surely he had to be disappointed that only one person saw the need to thank God for what had been given to him. Only one person saw the need to turn back, the one that was a double outcast in society was the one that saw how right it is to give God thanks and praise.

And therefore, Jesus turns to the man and tells him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." Now, what could Jesus mean by that since the man had already been healed of his leprosy? Could Jesus possibly be talking about being healed in a way far more important than a physical ailment? Yes.

In understanding that faith is also about giving thanks, the Samaritan man is given something he had never asked for or expected - Jesus gave him salvation. Jesus made this man whole and complete in body, soul, and spirit. He now belongs to God and will forever. All because he saw the importance of giving praise to God for the blessings he'd been given. He turned away from what society expected and demanded (that he go to the priests to immediately rejoin the community) and he turned back to Jesus who is the only one that can rejoin us to God who will give us eternal life and acceptance. Do you see how powerful and amazing this story is?!

Jesus is once again telling us not to worry about the quantity of our faith to make our prayers and lives work out the way we want them to. Faith is not a matter of cause and effect. Jesus is telling us the nature of faith is in how we live it - living a faithful life is about giving thanks. Faithful living is a life of gratitude and the Samarian man's grateful faith in Jesus made him well in ways the other nine did not experience that day.

How many of us when we receive something good remember to give thanks for it? Did you say thank you to your mother for waking you up on time this week or for making sure your clothes were cleaned? Did you say thank you to your spouse for picking up the trash or for cooking dinner this week or for taking the car to the garage to get fixed? Did you say thank you to your boss for making sure that there is work for you to do which means a steady paycheck in your mailbox every two weeks? Do we say thank you to those that serve us when we go out to eat or stop to get coffee? Have we remembered to be grateful for those that provide us with electricity, and those that pick up our trash every week? It's very easy to take for granted all the things we have in our lives and what we have been given. It's very easy to never acknowledge the time and detail that goes into so much of our lives.

Like in church, the time it takes the Sunday School teachers to prepare their lessons and to gather the materials and to make sure each lesson is informative, fun, and a full hour long. Or how many hours Carole spends playing the hymns and picking out anthems and practicing with the choir. How many hours Beverly works to create the bulletin, the newsletters, and the annual reports every week. How much time our Consistory gives to this church and the worries they deal with every month that they take home with them. How the same core group of people are the ones that volunteer to help with functions and committees. These are all things we must give thanks to God for and thanks to the people that perform the tasks. We are lucky to have such dedicated, hard-working people and without them we would not have a church to call home.

Prayers of thanks are part of the soul's healing and deliverance. No matter what we face in our own lives, being consistently grateful; giving active, faithful praise for God is what saves us from whatever we are struggling with. Practicing gratitude intentionally changes our lives. It will change our congregation. When we practice gratitude, we come to worship not just to get something, but to give thanks and praise to God.

That means things like stewardship are transformed from fundraising to the glad gratitude of joyful givers; the mission of our church changes from ethical duty to the work of grateful hands and hearts. Prayer includes not only our intercessions and supplications, but also our thanksgiving.

"Go on your way; your faith has made you well" is what we wait to hear from Jesus each week. It is a reminder that we have blessed lives, that our church is blessed and as we go on our way, we rejoice and give thanks; for in giving thanks in all things, we find that God is indeed in all things!

Praise be to God: Father, Son, and Spirit! 

When Belief and Faith Connect

Hab1: 1-4, 2:1-4
Luke 17: 5-10

The disciples in this passage of Luke were asking for more faith. They heard all the things Jesus wanted them to do as his disciples and became scared they did not have what it takes, and so they asked for more faith to accomplish these tasks. The disciples had it right in asking Jesus for faith, but wrong in thinking they didn't have enough of it already.

Faith is given to us by God. Faith is a gift given to us through Jesus Christ who's faith strengthens our own. It is my belief that each of us is given a kernel of faith upon being created, when the breath of "life" (God-breathed) was put inside of us we were also given the ability to believe in God and have faith in God's promises. All the faith we need is given to us in that one moment. Every person is given faith. Every person has received all that they need to create a faithful relationship with Jesus.

This passage left me with two big questions. The first was: Why then do we sometimes (often?) feel like we have no faith or not enough? After all, even the disciples begged Jesus for their faith to be increased after they hear everything that is expected of them as his disciple.

The second question was: Why do some people not believe in God if every person is given life/faith by God? Both questions can be answered by understanding the relationship between belief and faith. We often use the words interchangeably, but faith and belief are two different things. They are related which is why so many people treat the words like they mean the same, but they are not. In this passage today, Jesus tells the disciples that faith as small as a mustard seed is all that is needed to do miraculous things, and that was given to them upon their creation. However, the disciples do not believe they have enough faith. Belief is being fully persuaded by a judgment or opinion.

When a person is fully persuaded into believing something, faith can either be a help or a hindrance to that belief. When we look around the world we see enough bad things happening that we can understand why some would choose not to believe in God. It's hard to hear of the horrors of life and what people do to each other, and think that there is such a thing as a kind God who cares about what happens to us.

Belief is different from faith, however. Faith is inside each of us whether we want to acknowledge it or not. Faith is given by God and is not increased or decreased by anything we do or say. However, what we believe affects how we use our faith. If belief is being thoroughly convinced of an idea; then faith can be defined as belief plus action and confidence. James 2:17 tells us "Faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless." If faith does not move you to do something, then it is not real faith, it is merely a belief.

When we believe the truth with enough confidence to take action we exercise our faith. And it doesn't take much faith to see huge things happen, even miraculous things. And you can see where unbelief, that is believing things that aren't true - believing lies - completely clogs up the working of our faith. Unbelief prevents us from ever seeing the miraculous in our lives and that is why some people do not believe in God. They have allowed the negativity in the world to create their unbelief, and that has put a stopper on their faith in God.  

Too often we spend time and energy trying to increase our faith when Jesus said that's not really our problem. We pray and plead with God, begging him to give us more faith as the disciples asked Jesus in this passage.

Jesus responds by saying they have enough faith already, and then tells them a story about a master and his servant. In the story he tells them that a servant has a job to do, a specific task which is to help the master with his chores. The master's job is to provide shelter, food, and clothes for his servant. Just as the servant does not thank the master for the things he gives because he is supposed to give them; the master does not thank the servant for the chores he does because that is what he was supposed to do. Jesus then looks at them and the same goes for all of us. Do not expect to be patted on the back and thanked profusely for doing what is your duty.

Why would these two passages be put together in the lectionary? How can a parable about faith and then this parable about the master and servant work together? Jesus is explaining in his own way that faith and belief are two separate things. We believe we do not have enough faith to carry out the works that Jesus has given to us, and so we beg God to give us more faith. If we just had MORE - then obviously we could DO more. Right? The only reason we do not help the homeless, the only reason we do not tithe 10% of our income, the only reason we are not kinder to our enemies, the only reason we do not start taking on a more decisive role in our church and community is because we are waiting on God to give us MORE FAITH.

This is all God's fault. Not ours! Once we get more faith, we will do all these discipleship things that Jesus is always talking about. And Jesus responds that this belief in needing more faith is a bunch of malarkey. You have faith enough, Jesus tell us, to do great things now. There is no need to wait for more because the smallest bit of faith can do miraculous things, but if you do not believe in God and in yourself then nothing will happen. Faith without works is dead and useless faith. It's not real if it does not compel you to act upon it.

And once we accept we have faith enough to do all the things Jesus would have us do as Christian disciples, we must not expect abundant praise and thanksgiving from God. Jesus tells us that faith is what causes these good works. If we have faith, then we will act and do it with confidence and without expecting more from anyone. God gives you what you need and we are to give others what they need just as the master and servant have done in the parable. This is the nature of our relationship to God and how faith works.

But we get into trouble expecting more all the time. More faith. More thanks. More things. We get tied up in this idea that more is better when sometimes less is truly more.

We are tied down and repressed by these mis-beliefs. We are enough as we are. We have enough faith to cause miracles and good things to happen now. When we accept this we are freed to enjoy our faith more fully and act upon it with confidence. When we stop expecting praise for every good deed we do, we are also freed from being hurt when people do not thank and praise us enough to satisfy our egos. For we are merely doing what we should have been doing all along as Christians.

We are not going out of our way, we are doing what is expected and what is necessary to make life better. There is freedom in understanding these things and that is why these two passages are put together, and why Jesus tells us first that we have faith enough and then tells us not to expect excessive gratitude for doing our Christian duty. Jesus wants us to be free and happy, and that freedom and happiness will only be experienced when we let go of our misguided beliefs. This idea that we do not have enough faith, and that when we do something good we should expect gratitude and praise.

It's not about being enough or having enough. Let go of the idea that you need more and freedom will be yours. In this passage we are told that we are perfect as we are in our faith. We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in God the Father. We believe in the Holy Spirit. We are convinced fully and now it's time to prove that we also have faith in the Father, Son, and Spirit by acting with confidence. It's time we become the disciples that Jesus sees inside of us. It's time to let go of our fears and our doubts and the idea that we need to get something back when we do something good. Once we let go of all of that, we're ready to receive the confidence and conviction that comes when belief and faith act in one accord.

Jesus showed us how. He believed in His Father's promises and went to the cross, giving everything up for all of us. He emptied himself of everything he had so that we could be filled with faith and the promise of eternal life. We follow his example. Let go of whatever it is that holds you back and free yourself.

Amen.