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. 

The Secret of Idolatry

Amos 6: 1a, 4-7
1Tim 6:6-19

The passage we read in 1Timothy 6 talks about not loving riches more than God and how to be a person of God. It's some really good advice.

It reminds us how easy it is to be idolaters, in fact, much of our society has become about worshiping things rather than God. If we begin with tv shows, we'll skip past American Idol that has idol in its name and think instead of reality tv stars like the Kardashians or the Hiltons. We follow them and enjoy seeing pictures and hearing about their lives and their children and the clothes they wear and we enjoy them so much that tv producers have created shows to help us indulge in our fascination with these people.

Now let's talk about tv shows that aren't reality tv. The Vampire Diaries and Breaking Bad and all these other shows that we simply MUST WATCH AS SOON AS THEY COME BACK ON! And how teenagers post pictures in tumblr and adults write posts on Facebook and everyone talks about it at the water cooler at work. We learn that we can escape our life and we begin to crave that escape to such a point that it becomes more important than doing things with our family or praying to God.

Let's talk about music. This one in particular I'm guilty of because I do not go anywhere without music handy. ANYWHERE. Every single time I'm in the car, the radio goes on or Pandora gets plugged in. EVERY TIME no matter if I'm going ten feet or ten thousand. Many of us go to concerts and we follow the bands on Facebook and twitter. I spend more time listening to music than I do anything else. Music has become such a huge part of what makes me who I am that I'm not sure what I'd do without it. (That is a scary statement to make about something so trivial as music... shouldn't I be able to say the same thing about God and MEAN IT like I do about music? Shouldn't we all?)

What is your vice? What is your idol? Some of us have more than one.

Food has become a major topic lately in the health world because people are talking about how there are teenagers and adults who eat too much or do not eat enough. If we were to talk to these people we would hear things like they spend all day long thinking about food and thinking about the calories in food and how much exercise it takes to get rid of a chocolate bar. There are others who will admit that when they are stressed or upset they find themselves reaching for food to make them feel better. They have idolized food and made it their way of coping with life.

Food and music and tv shows should not be the things we think about all day long. But there's more idols than just those such as body image. There's nothing wrong with worrying about taking care of your body - God did call it a temple after all. But we obsess. How many calories are in that pie? How many minutes of exercise so I can eat it without guilt? What can I wear to hide my huge thighs and cover my fat rolls? What makeup can I wear to hide those lines on my face and what clothes can I wear to look more professional? I think I'm getting white hair, I need to dye my hair. What color should I dye my hair? Does any of this sound familiar? Have any of you obsessed about your body and face and the image you present to the world?

Then there's Social Media, and the many moments we spend thinking about it. Wanting to check Facebook and see what our friends are up to and if anyone has liked our posts. Our inability to go a moment without posting or tweeting about what is happening in our lives. Our constant desire to see what others are doing and so we get online to check out what they are doing tonight. And if we happen to get bored we do not read a book or sit quietly, instead we reach for our cell phones and begin texting people until someone responds so we don't have to spend a moment alone or bored.

These are all idols because they are things that are more important in the course of our day than anything else and maybe we would deny that they're more important, but the amount of time we spend thinking and worrying about them tells us the truth. It should alarm us how our connection to people and to God have become sublimated by things. Our possessions are way more important to us. Humanity has always been this way to some extent which is why a 2000 year old text can still be relevant today.

It's not that money is evil, the having or even the wanting to have it. It's what we DO with the money when we get it. It's what we have DONE to obtain the money or what we TRY to do to get money. Because we want money so we can possess things. And there is nothing wrong in owning a nice car or flat screen television. However, do we help others? Do we care about what happens to the world and if we care, do we act? Do we offer ourselves for a weekend to Habitat for Humanity? Do we give our canned goods to the food pantry? Do we help out at the homeless shelter and do we make time for our friends and family who need real relationships with us and not just the occasional text?

Idols slowly take over our lives without us even being aware. It's insidious and once it has us it's even harder to let go because we make them all seem so innocent. "I just watch Breaking Bad, I am not a tv junkie like some people!" "I just listen to music because it's too quiet for a 2 hour drive." "Everyone has to eat, so what that I like to eat pie instead of broccoli? I exercise!"

None of these things are bad in moderation. It's when they become all we think or care about that we have gone wrong. When we can't wait to get home so we can eat that pie or watch that show. When we can't sit in silence because we might start thinking about things we don't want to think about and so we flip on music to silence our inner reflections.

Whether we are Christians or atheists, when things become more important than people and our connections to them - that's a problem. Easy idols are things like drugs and alcohol and sex - everyone knows there are people with THOSE kind of problems and some of us have sympathy and some of us think we're better than that. But we're not. None of us are. We all have something we depend on to get us through life and more often than not it isn't our family, friends, and God. Whatever it is - that would be your idol. And idols will destroy your life even while they pretend to make them better.

What is truly important are the people who love you and who you love. What is truly important is God. Not that we treat them like they're the most important thing in our life because if we're honest, we don't. But maybe the first step in fixing that is being aware of the things we dwell on most in our minds and making sure they do not take up more space in our hearts and minds than they should.

And as a church, we need to start looking around and thinking about the things we have considered more important than God and what God wants us to do. For example, we do not have adequate handicap access into the sanctuary. I have been told by multiple sources the reason for that is because it was expensive to do and because it might mess up how pretty our church looks outside.

In the last month we have had four funerals and two of them have been here at the church. There were several people in wheelchairs that needed to get into the sanctuary. The chair we use to get them down the stairs is awkward to work the first time and the person in the wheelchair sits and looks at it and us helplessly and with no little embarrassment as we try to figure it out. Then, we have to make them get up out of their wheelchair to this tiny chair that will lower them down or take them up. We need to move their wheelchair and make sure to not hit them in the process since they are suspended in that chair, waiting for access to it. It's slow and it's not big enough for a heavy person and it will not work if the person cannot get out of the wheelchair on their own.

Because we do not want to spend the money and/or do not want to make our church less pretty, we have basically told anyone in a wheelchair that they are not TRULY welcome here. We do not consider their safety and comfort more important than money or aesthetics. This is our idol as a church and after I saw the embarrassment on that woman's face as we tried to get the lift to work, I realized we need to address this.

We need to start talking about it. We need to remember what God has called us to do; to NOT put riches and idols above our Christian duty. I have been told by others who are getting older that going up and down even those couple steps is becoming more and more painful, and they will never use that lift.

And it's not just older people that are in wheelchairs or find stairs difficult to navigate. There are all ages. We are called to welcome people, all people who are different from us. It is very important that we relook at this and think again about how we are the only church that is not fully handicap accessible and what we are saying to those outside this church by not working on it. Whether we meant to be hurtful or not, we are causing others pain.

As your pastor and as a Christian, I think this is something we have neglected to look at properly. My hope is that we can revisit this and that we will educate ourselves about what it would take to make everyone feel welcomed, comfortable, and accepted inside our church.

Amen. 

Thirsty for God

Amos 8:4-13
Luke 16: 1-13

After the last prophet in the OT, Malachi came and prophesied to the people, Israel went without a prophet for four hundred years. Four centuries of silence from God. But what was even worse than his silence is when Jesus Christ came to the earth and showed them the truth, the way, the light – they rejected Him. They rejected him because they had no recollection of what it means to be in the truth.

During the time of Amos, Israel had broken covenant with God so many times that they barely kept Sabbath and holy days. Again and again they turned to pagan gods and pagan ways and ignored their true God. That is why they were punished. That is why God removed Himself from their temple and from their hearts. As part of the punishment, there were no messengers of God to prophesy to them. Not even anyone like Amos or Ezekiel to chastise them and urge them to repent. For four hundred years Israel was left without guidance, they were sheep without a shepherd.

I don’t know if anyone has ever seen sheep that aren’t being guided but let me just tell you this, sheep are not the brightest of animals. They will walk, one by one, off of a cliff. They will wander aimlessly until they are caught in something they cannot get out of and then the rest will follow them to their doom. Now imagine these people, these sheep wandering around the world for four hundred years doing whatever they wanted. Is it any wonder they did not recognize the Messiah? Is it any great surprise that they laid traps to trick Jesus and that they fell upon him as wolves in sheep’s clothing and killed him?

If we were to travel back in time to the ancient days where the Israelite’s lived in the land of milk and honey and where they also desecrated all that was given to them, we would find them often referring to a specific time in the future. They called it, “the Lord’s Day” and they were referring to the end of times when God comes down and we are reunited with Him. Many of the people thought that this would be a time of great joy, tremendous feasting and celebrating for their people. However, many prophets were actually prophesying that the “Lord’s Day” would not be like any had thought because of the actions of the people. Where they thought feasting would occur, instead a great Famine would be enacted - where shouts of joy and celebration are turned to cries of sadness and the wailing of the damned.

Here, we read in Amos another sign that the Lord’s Day is a day not of happiness and reunion but of Judgment and that the People of Israel will not fair overly well. There were too few people observing the laws, the customs and rituals that God had put forth. There were too few people loving the Lord, listening to His commandments and obeying.  Does this not sound familiar? Where have we heard this before?

When John the Baptist was preaching about the Messiah, he found many people that did not listen to the ways of the Lord. He found Scribes and Pharisees corrupting the meaning of the Laws and using them for their own gain. He found that this was a land of the damned and the lost. Jesus Christ was born into a land that had very few with any true faith. The people had forgotten what it meant to be loyal, to be true to their God.

Once again, I ask, where does this sound familiar? In this world we inhabit, where are the true believers? Where are those that follow the rituals, the laws and the ways of Jesus as he set forth two thousand years ago? When I read the paper, when I watch the news I do not see healings, blessings and love. I see hate crimes, robberies, murders and abuse. Just this week while watching the news I heard about a man who accidentally shot his best friend as they argued over a gun and instead of telling someone about it, he cut his FRIEND up with a chainsaw and tried to hide his body throughout a couple counties.  

What kind of world are we living in? What has happened to our faith? I have a friend who is fond of quoting a particular verse from St. Francis Assisi. It says, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” The first time I heard that it took me a moment to get it and then I realized what it was saying. Our actions should be all the preaching we should have to do. The backup should be the words.

Instead, I find in this fallen world of ours we use words that have very little meaning. We throw them around to those among us as shields and weapons. We use them and we think very little about what we say. I once knew a person that every time I spoke to her, before she would respond she paused as if gathering her thoughts. When I asked her why she always took a moment before she spoke she told me something very interesting. She said, “I take a moment to speak so I do not have a lifetime of regret.”

Back in ancient times, there was a simple sheep farmer named Amos who heard God calling to Him. He saw what Israel and Judea were doing and when God showed him what was to happen, he paid attention. God gave Amos many signs of the coming troubles. God did not just give one vision, one word to Amos but many. Why does God do that? Why does God make sure to hammer home the point with multiple visions, multiple prophesies and multiple prophets? God is giving us a chance to wake up. To open our eyes, our hearts and our minds to what He is trying to tell us.

It scares me, really. The Israelites were living in a time of belief. They believed in God, matter of fact they believed so much in God that they even believed in pagan gods. So here are a group of people that have a temple, have many miracles, have proof that God is there with them and still they turn away from Him. Still, they turn to false gods. And today, in a world of disbelief, in a place where it isn’t ‘cool’ to be faithful I have to wonder how we are ever going to hear what God is saying to us. How are we going to see the signs, to hear those words?

We have book after book in the Old Testament and the New Testament proving that God loves us so much that God continues to talk, Jesus continues to reach out to us despite the many things we do. Who is paying attention anymore? Is there anyone that actively seeks the Lord? Sometimes I think that the 21^st Century is not a blessing, but a curse. Perhaps it is a punishment for us for having grown lax in our beliefs like what happened to the Israelites. The worst of all famines is when we can no longer hear the word of God, when we have no contact with Him.

So very long ago, God removed himself from Jerusalem because of the actions of His people. Today, I think God is removed from us not because God walked away but because we pushed Jesus away. We kept turning a deaf ear to the Holy Spirit until we could no longer distinguish God's quiet voice from everyone else’s. We cannot hear Jesus because all we hear is what we want, what we need and what we think we should be doing.

The passage we read today in Amos signaled that God had come to the end of his tether. There were no more days of mercy for the Israelites. God would remove His presence from them and would no longer protect them. The only reprieve God gave was to say that one day the Messiah would come and make it well with God. The Messiah came just as God promised. Jesus died for our sins, taking our place. And now, so many years later I can see that God is removed from this world once more. But this time I know it is not because Jesus wants to be, but because we have made it this way.

Amos 8:13 says, “In that day the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst.” I don’t know about you but when I look around and see what is going on in this world, I thirst. I am dying for some relief - just a brief respite from the pain, the anguish and sadness that drapes this world like a cloak. I think it is time for us to once again embrace God, to ask the Lord to come to us, to remove from us the pain and despair and instead replace it with His love and saving Grace. We need Jesus. We need to follow the Holy Spirit. We need to take what we know and share it with this broken world, to once again be the vessel that God’s light shines from.  

Amen.

Rejoice in the Differences

Ex 32: 7-14
Luke 15: 1-10

 Today's parable deals with two sets of people and how they are both feeling as they hear Jesus' words to the crowds. First, we are told that tax collectors and sinners were gathered around Jesus and so were the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. These are two completely different groups surrounding Jesus and trying to hear what he had to say about life and God. Jesus has a choice. He can choose to spend time just with the sinners and tax collectors, or he can choose to spend time with the Pharisees and teachers of the law, or he can try to spend time with all of them.

Jesus refuses to take sides. He refuses to spend time with only one group and thereby silently saying the other group isn't as worthy of his time and attention. He also challenges the people in each group to do the same. He challenges us to not think that one type of person or one certain viewpoint is the only one that we can accept. Jesus offers two parables to help us to come to terms with this idea.

The first is the parable of the lost sheep. In this story, it is obvious the lost sheep are the sinners and tax collectors, and the other 99 sheep are the Pharisees and teachers. Jesus says to them through this parable that although the one sheep has wandered away from the flock, that does not make that sheep any less important than the other 99. The majority does not win in Jesus' eyes for every person has importance and worth. Every single person has purpose and meaning and a mission in this world, and once we understand that we understand why Jesus made the choices he did; why Jesus chose not to support the unspoken opinion that one group was less worthy than the other group.

We are called to stop thinking that we or anyone else are better than others. We all have prejudices. We all have little walls in our minds that we seem to come up against at times in our lives. For some of us we have a hard time being patient with children that misbehave. For some of us we do not understand people of different cultures and their customs and we dismiss them as odd or strange. For some of us we cannot stand people that label themselves liberal or conservative because we have the opposite view. For some of us we do not like other church denominations and we find ourselves making little remarks or jokes about the differences. For some of us we have no patience for someone that has been in prison. For some of us we think homeless people or people on welfare need to just "get a job". For some of us we cannot stand women that dress in a provocative manner or men that wear flashy jewelry or baggy pants and we tell each other they must not have been raised right. For some of us we think that people with mental problems, no matter how severe or mild, makes them people we shouldn't associate with.

We're no different from the people back in Jesus' time. If Jesus was spending time with the people we have a distinct dislike of we would be looking at him the same way the Pharisees looked at Jesus. We would be saying the same remarks, "Why does he sit with THEM?! Doesn't he know that all Muslims are terrorists?! Doesn't he know that all ex-convicts are hardened criminals waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of you?! Doesn't he know that those are bleeding heart liberals who want to ruin our country with their socialism?! Doesn't he know that those are those hard-hearted conservatives that only know how to love guns, money, and power and not people?!"

Jesus looks back at them calmly and reminds the people that they are not the only ones in the world. Their views are not the only ones that matter. They are not the only people Jesus has come to spend time with, the only people Jesus wants to save. Jesus challenges us to remember that not only do we need to welcome those who are different and those we may not understand, but he challenges us to rejoice in the welcoming.

You see, the biggest part of the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin is that at the end, the person who has found what was once lost rejoices in finding it. They have a big party! Both the man and the woman call up their friends and gleefully say, "Come party with me because I've found my sheep! I've found my coin and we need to give thanks!" Jesus is trying to show the Pharisees that in their judgment of others they have condemned themselves to a life without joy.

They have judged others less and judgment brings no one any happiness - not the judged or the judge. Jesus is saying we need to let go of this kind of attitude and instead accept that every person is loved by God and when they walk through the doors of this church or they walk into your life that they are there FOR A REASON! God has placed them there, and it's not for you to belittle them or hurt them with your cold indifference or make quiet remarks to your neighbor about them.

When Jesus chose to NOT choose between the two very different groups of people he was making a quiet, powerful statement. "I love every single one of you. Every one of you have flaws and you make mistakes and you're not perfect at all, but I am here for you. There is no choice to be made except to say I died for all of you."

While in seminary, I attended a very liberal church one Sunday and heard a sermon on homosexuality and accepting the many differences God has created in each of us; the pastor reminded us to rejoice in our differences because it takes all types to make the world work. Afterward, I was introduced to a woman who towered over me in her high heels. She had to be 6'3 and she wore a tan dress with light blue swirls in it and her makeup was flawless and her nails were painted a light blue to match her dress. As I shook her hand, I realized this woman had been born a man, and for a moment I didn't know what to say or do. What did I have in common with this .. (And that's when my mind stopped and I thought "do I call her a woman or a man now that I know?!" and so I settled with) person? My thoughts swirled in my head and then she smiled at me and she said, "Tell me about yourself. It must be hard to be a student in seminary, I know, because I have a daughter in college."

And just like that I realized no matter her appearance and no matter that I thought I had nothing in common with her, suddenly she was just another parent worried about all these college kids trying to make it in the world. We talked for a good 15 minutes and it was one of the best conversations of the day. I knew that a Christian accepts everyone, but this was something I had never considered: HOW do we treat those that are different and who startle us in their differences?

Not by ignoring them. Not by making fun of them. Not by going along with what the rest of the world does. We look to Jesus. We remember how he sat with the sinners and he sat with the saints of the day and he loved them all. He talked to each of them like they were a person because they ARE people. They love and laugh just like us. They fight with their siblings and their spouses and they worry over their children. They wonder what the world is coming to and they hurt when they are treated as less just like we are hurt when we are rejected.

We treat those that are different from us like they aren't different at all. We accept their differences not by ignoring them, but by educating ourselves and asking questions and treating them just like we would the person that looks just like us or thinks just like us. Jesus didn't understand the Pharisees' attitude because what Jesus saw is that these supposed saints had no joy in their life because they were too busy being judgmental. It's time to stop judging others and start learning about them and through learning we will understand them and through our understanding we will love them - that is what Jesus calls us to do - to love everyone no matter their differences from us.

Amen.  

The Cost of Discipleship

Deut 30: 15-20
Luke 14: 25-33

Jesus was always willing to lay everything out for us. There was no hiding of facts or concealing the more grueling parts of what it meant to be his follower. Jesus believes that if you want to follow him then you should be aware of what it is you're taking on. Churches today should probably follow his example more closely when new people arrive, but we're so eager to make them feel welcome and we're so busy praying they'll stay that we would never consider telling them the blunt truth about what it would mean to be a member of this particular church.

And it's not that there's a bunch of bad things going on here, but it's the idea of saying honestly, "We could use you on about three different committees and your money will be very welcome and please don't sit in that pew over there unless you want someone very influential in the church to make you feel like you've done something wrong." Even though that is the bare, bald truth in almost every church in America, no one wants to state that to someone just walking in the door! We want to offer them friendship bread and handshakes and hugs. We want to show them how loving and kind and open we are to their differences. We want them to STAY and so we don't reveal all the truth at one time. We allow them to discover our little idiosyncrasies all on their own over time.

Jesus, well.. Jesus wasn't like that. Jesus loved walking up to a crowd of people and telling them exactly the way it is and letting them sort it out for themselves. Jesus tells the people in this text that they need to hate their mother and father, their brother and sister and their children and husband. They are to hate their very own life. If we walked up to every new person that comes in the door and said such things, how might they react? They'd think we're crazy Christians; fanatical Christians!

What was the purpose of Jesus telling the people that they must hate those the bible tells us to love and cherish? What is the purpose of us hating our own lives that God has given to us? This doesn't make sense! What is Jesus telling us?

Nothing in life is free. Nothing in life is truly easy. There are too many sermons and too many pastors preaching about how life is good when you're a Christian. There is too much talk about how much God loves us and how much Jesus has done for us and not enough about the cost of being a Christian disciple. There's a difference between a Christian and a disciple of Jesus Christ.

A Christian is someone who believes in God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ. They believe that Jesus died for our sins and through his death we are accepted into the relationship of the Trinity and will receive eternal life. That's a Christian. A disciple of Jesus Christ is a person that believes all the things a Christian does, but also acts upon those beliefs. They are not passive in their faith. They feel Jesus calling them to new places and feel the Holy Spirit urging them onward and they believe in the Father's promises to them and therefore they take action.

A disciple cannot sit back and watch injustice happen before their eyes. A disciple feels the need to tell a person that is hurting that there is more to life than pain. A disciple knows when to offer a helping hand, a listening ear, and a prayer. A disciple does not only come to church to hear the Good News, but to learn how to spread the Gospel to those that have not heard it. A disciple gives more than he or she takes. A disciple understand there is a true cost to being a Christian, one that not everyone is prepared or willing to give.

It's why Jesus doesn't sugarcoat the truth. It's why we really shouldn't either. Being a Christian disciple is hard work. It sometimes requires us to be at odds with our family. It sometimes requires us to give up our hobbies so we can help improve the church. It sometimes requires us to spend all sorts of hours in meetings when all we want to do is get home to our kid's softball game. It sometimes requires us to give a lot of money to certain functions and events because we know that no one else is going to fund the dance competition in school this year, but it's something the teenagers actually enjoy. Sometimes it means being at odds with the people who are working for the same things you are, but each person has a vision and they're not meshing right now.

Being a disciple is full of stress and angst and anger and conflict. We're at war with others and with ourselves. When we're honest, we know there is more we could be doing to follow Jesus. We know there is more we could do in our personal lives, our professional lives, and in church life to make the Kingdom of God more real to the world. We fight against our need to be independent and our desire to lean upon God. We fight against what we know we should do and what we want to do instead.

It's easier to pretend we didn't hear the sermon that says, "give more time and money to church and your community" and that way we can sit back in our recliner and watch that episode of Modern Family without any guilt. We can tell ourselves that since we put in that hour on Sunday, we're good for the week. "That was quality God time and now I need quality Me time!" But Jesus, he doesn't let us get away with that.

He tells us to hate our lives, not to sit back and relax in it. Jesus wants us to understand that when we take on the label of Christian all that we say and do is suddenly labeled Christian Behavior and Christian Way of Doing Things. It's an all or nothing deal that is so black and white that we instinctively try to search out the gray area. We want to hide in the shadows! We do not want to be the poster child for Christian life! But the day you were baptized; the day you stood up in church and said I believe; the day you accepted your membership here at church you took on the life of a Christian disciple.

We have taken on a heavy cross and Jesus tells us that in plain words. He tells us to prepare us for what is coming. For the tests, the trials, the tribulations that we want to pretend aren't coming our way and that if we pretend maybe we can avoid them. It won't work. And not only that, but in the meantime we are Christian in name only because we are not acting as Christ's disciples because we have buried our heads in the sand.

Jesus leaves us with no excuses and no pretenses in this passage. "Are you a Christian?" he asks, and when we say yes he replies, "Then act like it with all of your heart and soul and mind."

I will end with the wise words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who writes about the cost and grace of discipleship, “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a person must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a person their life, and it is grace because it gives a person the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God [Jesus made flesh].”

Amen.