Avoiding Bankruptcy on the Wheel of Fortune® Part I

I am not all that old, but for as long as I can remember there has been a game show on TV called Wheel of Fortune. I had not watched it for years, but this fall I have caught it a few times in the evening when I have been sitting with my hospice patient over in Our little Town. (Describe the game.) You all have probably seen this game show sometime in your lives, maybe you are a regular watcher. Since I am not, I was kind of surprised at some of the innovations and enhancements they have made to the game this season. The panels on the wheel light up, and I am not absolutely sure, but I think they are like monitor displays that can automatically change their read out from one round of the game to the next. There are a couple of things to watch out for in this game when you spin the wheel. If the wheel stops on Lose a turn than you lose your turn and play moves on to the next player, but the really bad one is if you land on bankruptcy. Then you lose whatever cash or prizes you have accumulated for that round of the game and lose your turn.
Life can be like this. Things may be going along fine as far as you can tell, your taking care of your everyday business, minding your own business, and then, whammy something comes along and cuts you off at the knees and you do not know what hit you. This can happen whether you are someone that calls yourself a Christian or not.
When I was in my second and third years of working for EDS, I kind of had, not just one round of landing on Bankruptcy, but several in different areas of my life. I was working long days, commuting 60 or 70 miles away from home for work. I was a leader at work, and working in an environment where we supported our customers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. If some one on my team was working the night shift, 8 PM – 7 AM during the week or 8 PM – 9 AM on weekends and they were sick or just had vacation time then I had to cover it. A few times that meant I worked my regular shift from 9 AM to 6 PM had two hours off of work and then worked the night shift from 8 PM to 7 AM. What is that 20 out of 24 hours in a given day. Then one day I came home from work and Jayleigh told me that if things did not change and change in a big way very soon when it came to making our home life and our marriage relationship a high priority that she was going to have to leave. In other words, our marriage was on the verge of going bankrupt.
Let’s leave that for a moment. And look at another facet of my life at that time. In May of that year, 1999, if I remember correctly, I had been at annual conference for the UMC and felt a strong sense of God calling me into the ministry. Jayleigh and I had discussed it and decided before I scrapped everything and went off to seminary, that I should perhaps try becoming more involved in our home church as a lay person and leader in the church, you know, just to see how things work out. So I had begun to work more on that over the course of the year, working with the Sunday school, VBS, PPRC, Trustees, coming to Ad Board. But even as I was showing some growth in that area, there was another area of my faith life, my walk with Jesus that was not growing. Stewardship.

I was earning more than I ever had in my business job and Jayleigh was working too adding income to our household, yet when it came to our offering at church we would only put in what was left over after we had our fun and paid some of our bills. Sometimes it might have even appeared to be a respectable amount of offering, but it really wasn’t because it was not being given in the right spirit. If we truly believe that God is the author and creator of everything that we have in our lives than it should not be too much for God to expect that we would make giving a tithe of the first ten percent of what has come to us from God back to him through God’s church, but I was not doing that. My stewardship life was bankrupt.
Honestly at this time, I was not managing any of my finances properly and bills were not getting paid on time or in the correct amount and creditors were calling all the time demanding payment. So my financial life in whole was on the verge of bankruptcy as well.
Also around this same time, I was having more and more trouble with my eyes bothering me, getting fatigued, and my jaws were causing me severe pain, because they were severely out of alignment. I had an obvious under-bite and because my teeth and jaws did not line up properly the muscles on the joint would cramp, ache, and sometimes throb with pain. I was only 29, but I was beginning to feel like my health was going bankrupt.
What does bankrupt mean? On dictionary.com the second definition of the term bankrupt, used as a noun is this, “any insolvent debtor; a person unable to satisfy any just claims made upon him or her.” And the third when used as an adjective is this, “a person who is lacking in a particular thing or quality: a moral bankrupt.”
So here I was, I had experienced a spiritual calling to the ministry from God. I was going to church and serving the church in many different ways. At work I was climbing the corporate ladder and earning bonuses and salary increases. On the surface everything appeared to be OK, probably to some my life probably appeared to be not just good, but great. The reality though was that I was bankrupt. I was bankrupt in my marriage, in my health, in my finances, and in my stewardship. It might not seem like it, but the stewardship was a major key. Stewardship is part of our lives of faith as Christians. My faith was shallow, my claim of being a Christian was nearly empty.
I was lacking faith and when it came to the things that God demanded of me or to keeping what Jesus said were the greatest commandments, to love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my mind, and with all my strength and to love my neighbor as myself, I was truly bankrupt. I was unable to satisfy any just claim made upon me, by my wife, by the companies that I owed money too, and most of all claims made upon me by God.
I wish that I had studied the book of Haggai at that time in my life. Haggai wrote one of the shorter books of the bible. It is only two chapters long. There are no great plagues, there are no great wars, and honestly there are no great acts of God described in the book of Haggai, but it still carries a very important message. That message is about faith. It is a message about making God a priority in your life instead of putting him on the back burner.

It is 20 years after the people of Israel were freed and returned from exile in Babylon back to their native country. The excitement of those first days, months, or even years of being home again have warn off. The people have fallen into the drudgery of life and life is not horrible, but it is not going too well.
When they first returned from exile the people were excited about learning about their God as they had not been able to do for those many years that they were held captive in that foreign land. They wanted to hear God’s word and they wanted to answer the call to serve him. The city of Jerusalem had been sacked and the Temple of Solomon had been not just destroyed but also desecrated. God called the people to build a new temple for him and the people made an attempt to begin a new temple…but then life started to get in the way. The people were more concerned with building their own houses, planting, tending, and harvesting their own fields and flocks. They had lots of business to take care of in order to re-establish their lives. When it came time to work on a temple or even worship God and listen to what he had called them to do, they were too busy, they were too tired. They needed to take a break and have a day of rest for themselves.
What does God do? He does not send another plague. He does not send another conquering army. No, he sends Haggai the prophet, with a message for the people. If you read Haggai from the beginning, Haggai, states to the people of Israel in Haggai 1:4-6.
These people are bankrupt. These people are unable to satisfy the just claim that had been made on them by God. And why is that, because these people are lacking in a particular quality. And that quality is what? That quality is faith. That quality is true deep-seated, heartfelt, head-thought faith backed up by all of their strength!
Boy, I wish I had read this in the fall of 1999!
God’s message continues, in verses 1:7-11.
I did not read this and learn this lesson in 1999, but I did know something at that time. I knew that I needed to change my priorities around if I wanted to work with Jayleigh to save our marriage and if I wanted to regain my health, and if I wanted to straighten out our financial situation. I remembered things that I had been taught over the years growing up in church and Sunday school. I remembered scriptures like Exodus 23:16 “Celebrate the Feast of the Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. In verse 19 “Bring the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.” I remembered what I learned as a young adult in the Christian church about tithing not just treasure, but time and talent as well.
And still looking in Exodus what does God promise to do for the faithful that give him their firstfruits? Beginning with verse 20 from the NIV, “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. “ Now back to Haggai, what does God promise to do when the people decide to put their faith in him instead of in their own works? When they decide to work for God instead of just working for themselves, what does God promise?

Away Too Long

Wow, I cannot believe that I have not added any posts here since March 21, 2007. I had birthday since then. I guess I started doing my sermons more from notes and outlines and therefore have not had much to post. I am back now.

Wait and See

This event happens after Jesus’ baptism and after he recruited at least his first four disciples: Andrew, whom had been one of John the Baptist’s disciples, Andrew’s brother Simon, whom Jesus would give the name Peter, Philip, who was from the same home town as Simon and Andrew, Bethsaida, and Philip’s friend Nathanael.
The structure of the account of this miracle is similar to some other accounts of Jesus’ miracles: the expression of a need, Jesus’ reluctance or hesitation to respond to the request for help, and a further demonstration of faith followed by acts of obedience to God’s will and Jesus’ directions. The miracle is performed as a response to the request, the demonstration of faith, and the acts of obedience. This is similar to the account of Jesus healing the sick son of a royal official from Capernaum, which was in area of Galilee. This can be found in John chapter 4. I looked up Cana and Capernaum on one of the maps in my bible and found that they are about twenty miles apart. This royal official came to see Jesus during another visit to Cana. The man begged Jesus to heal his sick son and Jesus responded, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders you will never believe.” But the man persisted, begging, “Sir come down before my child dies.” Therefore Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.” The account of that miracle states that from the very moment that Jesus uttered those words, the boy’s fever left him. That is recorded in John, in Mark and Matthew the account of Faith of the Syrophoenician Woman. She was a Greek woman and she had a daughter that was possessed by an evil spirit. She fell at Jesus feet and begged him to drive the demon out, but Jesus said, “First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs. The woman persisted replying, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Jesus was impressed by her faith and because of it, he made the demon leave the daughter’s body.
This is probably a very familiar story from the gospel for most of us. Jesus is at Cana in Galilee with his mother Mary and his disciples. During the wedding banquet the party runs out of wine. This would be a very embarrassing and unfortunate problem to have. It would be like running out of punch, or soda pop, or coffee or all three at a present day wedding reception. The guests are celebrating the marriage with the bride and groom and having a grand meal, but they need something fitting to drink with it. It would be a very embarrassing miscalculation on the part of the bridegroom and his family to run out of wine.
Judging by the amount of water that Jesus turned into wine, enough to fill six 20 to 30 gallon stone water jars. This must have been a pretty big party. Jesus created somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons of wine. Just judging by that volume there must have been many guests at this banquet. From experience, I know that when something does not go right at a party people remember it and talk about it or joke about it at future gatherings. For example, in my family we always remembered and talked about the time that we were grilling out and some how the steaks got dumped in the dirt. We did not have anything else to eat, and it landed in clean sand so they were rinsed and served and we ate them. We always joked about the sand crunching and squeaking in our teeth, even though I do not think any of us really did get any sandy bites.
Mary wanted to save her friends from the embarrassment of not being properly prepared for this wedding banquet so she took action. She asked Jesus for help. This is something that she had in common with the royal official from Capernaum and the Syrophoenician woman. They needed help or they knew of a need for help and they took it to the Lord to ask for help. This is something we might need to be reminded of when we have problems.
When the wine began to run out at the wedding banquet, Mary did not have to say anything to Jesus about the problem. It was not her job to make sure that the party was well supplied. Apparently there was a water source nearby, the people could have gotten by with just water to drink, but Mary did take the step to present this problem to Jesus. She did not just try to work on her own to find a solution for this problem. When Jesus tested Mary’s faith by questioning whether this was the right time for him to act or the right place, Mary persisted in her faith. She did not give up just because she did not get the answer that she had hoped for right off the bat. She still told the servants to do whatever Jesus asked them to do. The servants that were there respected the faith Mary had in Jesus and therefore they were obedient to the instructions that Jesus gave them.
The next part of this story presents two more important points. The first is that the persistence of faith of one person can plant the seed of new faith in the hearts of others. The servant’s had drawn water from the stone jars and presented it to the steward of the banquet. When he tasted the water it had become wine. He did not know where this wine had come from, but the servants knew that this wine had been water just moments before when they were filling the jars. Those servants may have gained at least a seed of faith from witnessing this miracle. The scripture also says that Jesus glory was revealed through this miracle and the disciples put their faith in him.
The third point is that when the water was transformed into wine by Jesus the wine was better than the first wine that had been served at the banquet. The wine that the family had provided for the banquet was probably the best that they could afford, but it was not as good as the wine that Jesus had provided. If Mary had not stepped in or interceded on behalf of the groom and his family, they would have been left to their own devices. Whatever they could have provided as a drink for the rest of the banquet, it would not have been as good as the wine that was provided by Jesus.
These are important lessons for us to keep in our hearts and minds. It may be difficult when we are engulfed by our problems and trying to find a solution or a way out, to stop and take the time to turn to God and ask for help, but when we do God does hear us. When we ask God for direction and help he does listen. He may not respond as soon as we would like him to and he may not provide the solution that we had expected, but in his own time and in his own way, God does answer our prayers. His answer may be, “yes”, it may be “no”. His answer may also be wait and see what I can do for you.

Mercy Me!

I some times struggle with this parable for two reasons. If I put myself in the shoes of the prodigal son, it just seems way to easy. He has taken the inheritance that his father gave him and blown it on wine, women, and the wild life. This was wealth that his father worked nearly a life time to earn; he burns right through it within a couple of years. Then he falls on hard times, at the same time that the country that he lives in also falls on hard times. Now not only does he not have any riches to squander on the good life, he does not have the bare necessities to sustain his life. He goes to work for a pig farmer, and he is so hungry that the slop he is feeding to the pigs looks good enough to eat. To us this might seem like exactly what he deserves. He thinks of his father’s hired hands and servants. They have plenty of decent food to eat, so he decides to travel back to his father’s house and throw himself on his father’s mercy, and beg. He intends to beg, not to be accepted back as his father’s son, but just to be taken back to work as a hired hand. In our human minds, even coming back as a hired hand, is probably better than he deserves after the way he has treated his father.
What does the father do when he comes back? Does he wait for this son that went astray to beg for forgiveness? No, this father has been keeping watch waiting for his wandering son to come home. He has been fearing that this prodigal son, may have died, and he is so glad that this lost sheep has returned home that he runs out to him and kisses him, and gives him a new robe and a new ring, and new sandals for his feet. The father tells the slaves to go and kill the fatted calf because they are going to have a grand celebration because this son, whom he thought was dead is now alive again. Then they begin to celebrate. Seems a bit over the top doesn’t it? Seems like way more than he deserves doesn’t it?
This is not justice is it? After disrespecting his father and running off with his inheritance money to a foreign land and squandering it, that boy deserved whatever he got. He truly should have been grateful to get any job that he could get, slopping pigs let alone working as a servant or hired hand for his father. Does he get what he deserves? No he does not. His father loves him so much that he shows grace and mercy beyond normal human understanding. He honors this prodigal son and treats him like an honored guest. He treats him like a favorite son.
That brings me to the more realistic part of this parable. The elder son, the one that has stayed at his father’s side and helped to take care of the estate for all these years, these years when his younger brother was off living a life of debauchery and lasciviousness’. The elder son has been faithful and loyal and trustworthy and hardworking. So it is pretty understandable that when he is out working in the field and hears this music and sees the dancing from this celebration for his no account brother that he gets angry. The older son has been a contributing member of society for years, and has his father ever even given him a young goat so that he could have a party with his friends. No way, no how. The son that wasted his share of the estate gets a party just for coming home and the one that has stayed at home and kept the household running just gets day after day of drudgery and work. Does that sound very fair to you?

We may see ourselves in either one of the two sons, some of us may even see ourselves in the father. I am going to review these characters in reverse order. Any here that have been parents or parental figures to children crossing from youth into adulthood, there has probably been more than one point in your relationship with those children where you felt lost, where you felt like your child was going astray. Maybe they stop going to church. Maybe they have chosen not to go to school to better themselves or they won’t get a job. Maybe they are living a life or lifestyle that goes against the will of God and the teachings of the bible. If you are a parent with children in your life that have gone astray and have not yet returned to God, you understand the feelings of that father that would look out over the horizon keeping watch for the return of your lost child. This precious life that you helped to create and mold is some where out there lost and alone because of their own choices, and all that you can do is pray that God will help them turn their lives around. And if those children have later turned their lives around and come back to God and come back to you, then you probably have a good idea of how the father of the Prodigal Son felt. That child which was lost has now been found. That child which was dead to you because of the choices they were making in their life has now repented and turned their life around to go the other way and therefore they are alive again.
We may see ourselves in the character of the elder son. The one that has always been faithful, the one that tries to be obedient to the father, we are the ones that step up to help with funeral dinners, work on projects in and around the church or in the community, we serve and clean-up at picnics, hog roasts, smorgasbords, and bazaars all kinds of luncheons, meals, and functions. We submit our own wills to the will of God, and sometimes it may be hard to see what we get for it. The reward may not come right away. The reward may not be apparent. It does not seem fair to us when the tax collectors, prostitutes, drunkards, drug abusers, and philanderers finally hit their rock bottom and decide to turn their lives around. All of a sudden everybody is making a great big fuss over them, those horrible sinners. What is the big deal. That guy just blew all of the money that he had, and when he had nothing to eat he decided that he would go back home to see if he could get some help. All the while those prodigals were out there living it up, doing whatever they pleased, however they pleased, wherever they pleased, we were back here holding down the fort, working for we new that the night would be coming. We were tilling the ground, planting the seeds, pulling the weeds, reaping the harvest, and this no account good for nothing shows up and is welcomed with open arms just in time to enjoy the fruits of our labor. The answer from our Father in Heaven is that he loves us just as much as he loves the Prodigal. His answer is that our reward is found in Heaven and our inheritance is secure.

Jesus answered the Pharisees well, when he told this parable about the Prodigal and his brother. Remember that they were grumbling among themselves because Jesus was eating with sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes. God is glad to have all those that are saved and that have accepted salvation in Jesus Christ and that are therefore part of the family of God. However, the lost souls are the ones that need to be sought after. To put it another way, healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people surely do. When even one more lost person is found, when one more sick person is healed, when one more prodigal sinner repents and is redeemed and is brought into God’s family, of course he is thrilled and there is celebrating in heaven. He is our loving Father in Heaven, and nothing can make him happier than welcoming each new saved son or daughter back into his family.This leads me back to that Prodigal Son, the one who was lost, the one who took his inheritance and squandered it on sinful living. He went against the will of the father. He did the things that he should not have done and he did not do the things he was supposed to do. Does this sound like anyone you know? At some point in our lives, or even at some point in each day, all of us slip into sin. We say hurtful or unkind things to “our neighbor”. We do things in order to serve ourselves before God and before others. We go astray in many ways, some obvious and some that might be very subtle. When we go astray, we are just like that Prodigal Son. We put the inheritance that God has planned for us in jeopardy. We risk losing that mansion that Jesus returned to Heaven to prepare for us. But the good news is, all we need do to come back home is pray to God asking for forgiveness. Our Father in Heaven watches over us even when we wander off on our own sinful paths, and he can see us when we repent. He sees us when we turn around and come back to the way that is the one right way, and even though we may only feel like we deserve to work like a hired hand in our Heavenly Fathers kingdom, he does not treat us that way. When we return to his paths of righteousness from the ways of sin and the world; he puts a new cloak of righteousness around our shoulders. When we make it home He will put a precious ring on our hand, and even a crown of victory on our heads. He does this not because we earned it, but because our elder brother, Jesus Christ toiled, suffered, died and rose again to pay the price to redeem us from our sins. Jesus earned these rewards, but as repentant believers and through the grace and mercy of God we get a share of them. Praise God?! Amen!!

Life in Christ Is an Open Book Test

When I was growing up, I thought the greatest Christian must be the person who walks around with shoulders thrown back because of tremendous inner strength and power, quoting Scripture and letting everyone know he has arrived. I have since learned that the most mature believer is the one who is bent over, leaning most heavily on the Lord, and admitting his total inability to do anything without Christ. The Christian is not the one who has achieved the most but rather the one who has received the most. God’s grace, love, and mercy flow through him abundantly because he walks in total dependence. This is an excerpt from Fresh Faith by Jim Cymbala, and it echoes one of the points of this morning’s Epistle lesson. This point is that though we face many trials and temptations in our lives, it is not our own inner strength that gets us through them, but it is the strength that we can draw from God through faith that enables us to conquer them all.
Paul starts this passage to the church in Corinth with warnings to the members of the church. He wanted them to be aware that they were still surrounded by temptation, but also that they needed to be conscious of their own feelings. Corinth was a major city in the Roman empire filled with temples for all kinds of pagan religions, and Corinthian Christians were quite a motley crew. They were people that you probably would not expect to turn their lives over to the teachings of Christ. They were converted idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, thieves, drunkards, and swindlers. They came from pagan religions where immoral behaviors were part of religious customs, so Paul uses the example of the Israelites and their travels through the desert to give these new Christians some instruction.
We live in a world where the pagan religions are harder to see. The world we live in preaches messages that right and wrong are just a matter of personal choice, and if we happen to do something wrong, than it is not really our fault. A world that teaches us to do what feels good. A world that tells us that we deserve to have more comfort from more and better material goods. The secular world brings all kinds of messages of sublime self-indulgence. This is really not so different from the culture surrounding the new Christian church in Corinth.
When Moses lead the Israelites up out of Egypt they passed through the sea by the power of God. This for the Christians in Corinth and for us today is an analogy to being baptized into the family of God. In the wilderness the Israelites wandered the desert under a cloud, which was the indication of the presence of God. Once we become a part of the family of God, then he is always with us. He may not appear over us like a cloud leading our way, but he is in our hearts and in our minds. God goes with us wherever we go and whatever we are doing. He is always with us.
Now once the Israelites had followed Moses and God into the desert, did they live the rest of their lives as devout worshipers and saints? It does not sound like it. We can read in several places in the book of Exodus about the people straying from their commitment to God. They would fall into idol worship and behave immorally. By straying from the path that God was leading them on, they were putting God to the test. Paul used that example for the Corinthian Christians, because just as the Israelites were tempted by the hardship of their own situations and the behaviors of the peoples around them, the Corinthian Christians also faced hardships and the temptation of seeing the indulgent behavior of the pagans around them. In the end only two of the generation of the Israelites that went out into the desert with Moses were allowed to enter into the Promised Land, because of their faith in God and obedience to his word. Paul wanted to use this instruction to help the Corinthians do a better job of remaining faithful to God.
The problems that the Corinthians faced were very similar to the problems that the Israelites had struggled through thousands of years before. Now we are living some two thousand years after Paul wrote his letter to the church in Corinth, and some of the problems that they were facing do not really relate to us. Like the issue of eating meat that had been sacrificed to pagan idols, but some of the issues the church is dealing with today are much the same as those that were faced by the Corinthians. There are divisions in the church, lawsuits, immorality, the single life, the extent of Christian freedoms, and differing views of worship and worship styles. Every breakdown in the church in Corinth will not necessarily occur in churches today, but the principles of Paul’s teachings still apply to our own unpredictable experiences.
How fitting it is that we would use this scripture on a Sunday when we will be sharing in communion. The scripture says, “All ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. We will all be eating from the common loaf and drinking from the cups all filled from the same source. They and we eat and drink from the same spiritual rock and that rock is Jesus Christ.
Sharing in the Spirit of Christ does not automatically save us from temptation and it does not deliver us from falling back into sin. As our scripture states, “the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” Communing with other Christians and participating actively in Christian worship helps to fortify us to resist temptation and that fortification helps us to avoid falling back into sinful patterns of behavior, but it is not a get out of jail free card. We need to be on guard so that when we leave church we do not leave behind our Christian behavior, but rather live out our faith and obedience to God everyday of our lives.
A couple of weeks ago, when church was canceled due to the snowy and icy roads, you all missed out on a sermon based on the scripture from Luke about the temptation of Jesus by Satan for 40-days. This happened right after Jesus had been baptized in the River Jordan by his cousin John the Baptist. Since our Epistle lesson today also deals with temptation, I want to share with you a little bit of what I had prepared based on that gospel.
You might expect that Jesus would have gone directly into teaching and performing miraculous signs and healings after being baptized. After all immediately following his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove and God the Father spoke from heaven, claiming and proclaiming that this Jesus was his Son and with him he was well pleased. That is not what happened though, Jesus was moved by the Spirit to go out to the desert and for more than six weeks he was tempted and tormented by the devil. During that whole time Jesus fasted, and though he was physically weakened he became spiritually strengthened.
When Satan sees and hears that we are trying to become God’s children and work for God in this world, than there is nothing that he, Satan, would like to do more than to stop that work. The temptations that the Israelites faced in the desert, the temptations that Jesus faced in the desert, the temptations that the early Christians faced in Corinth, and the temptations that we face today, all of these temptations are the same things. They are all issues of the devil trying to prevent Christians from advancing in their walk of faith. They are Satan’s attempts to prevent the word of God from being spread and prevent more people from being brought into the family of God. These battles against temptation are how we may end up bent and stooped from our spiritual struggles.
Here is the good news, all of these temptations that we can read about in Exodus, in the gospels, and in Paul’s letters to his churches, they can all serve as examples for us. As our Epistle lesson states, “they were written down to instruct us”. There is an extra warning here for those of us that may be sitting here or standing here thinking, “Yea, those poor other folks that don’t see what is hitting them.” “If you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.” This might be a slightly more subtle way of saying, “Before you point out the speck in your brothers or sisters eye, pull the log out of your own.” As long as we are living in the flesh we are tempted to sin and because of our human side, we will most likely step into it from time to time, but we are not in this alone. We have our Christian family, and God himself on our side and he will help us out of whatever mess we step-in.
That brings me to the second part of the Good News for this morning. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. If you are tempted to cheat on your spouse. If you are tempted to cheat on your taxes. If you are tempted to abuse drugs or alcohol. If you are tempted to skip school or work. If you are tempted in any way, you are not the first or the only person to be tempted that way. Even Jesus was tempted and he had to struggle with that when he was tired and hungry, just as we are tempted when we are in a weakened state. Remember this God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength. The world does not have control over your spirit. God’s power is greater than any of the temptations and lies that the devil will throw at you. Jesus set a perfect example for us as he withstood the temptations of the devil. He had the free will to choose to give into the temptations of Satan if he wanted to. His flesh was weakened and he could have accepted the lies that Satan was spitting at him. If he had we would all have been lost, but Jesus showed us the way to resist any temptation. Test the messages that the world is throwing at you against the Word of God. If those worldly messages do not agree with the teachings of the Bible, than rebuke the world and deny Satan his victory by answering with the Words of God found throughout the scriptures. Those messages from God will provide the way out so that you can endure the testing and then you will be strengthened by God. If that method was good enough for Jesus, then it is good enough for you and me!

Happy Anniversary Jayleigh!

I feel like we have been so busy with work, commitments, responsibilities and holidays that we should do something really big to celebrate our anniversary. What seems right though? We have been out shopping quite a bit lately, so that is not it. We have been eating out a lot lately, so that would not really be a treat, would it.

When we are home together we have been staked out on our assigned pieces of furniture, you crocheting on your glider and me typing away on my laptop on the couch. What if we actually take time to be together? What if we spend time with each other without any separate jobs or distractions? That sounds good to me what do you think?

You are such an amazing woman. You stand on a firm foundation supported by your faith, family, friends, and our growing church family. As strong as you are, facing new challenges everyday, you are still tender and vulnerable. You took great care with both your last hospice patient and her family. Now you have agreed to take on two more patients. I will be beside you with these new cases, but it was still a very courageous thing to do. I know that you are still missing your time with Meg. Your answer to the call to serve is truly inspiring.

We have grown and changed so much in our time together. We have been through so much, it is hard to fathom it all, and yet it hardly seems possible that 19 years have passed since that first Winter Formal that we went to after eating dinner at the village restaurant. Those kids dancing the night away did not have any idea what they would face and do in the years to come. From that night on, I knew that I could love you for the rest of my life, but I did not know how deep that love could grow and what great friends and partners we would become.

If we thought that poem, Anniversary, which was read at our wedding was true thirteen years ago, how much more does it ring true today? Your hand feels so familiar in mine that it as close to me as my own heartbeat, and yet a look from you can still take my breath away. We can sometimes complete each others thoughts, and yet you can still surprise me with just a look. I am so glad that we are sharing this walk down the road of life. I do not know exactly where it is going, but I do know that with God's help we can get through anything and along the way find blessings beyond our wildest imaginations.

Jayleigh, I love you more than words can say, but here I am still dreaming about you!

Rob

When I read this section from James about calling together the elders of the church to pray for you when you are sick, it reminds me a little bit of the Disney movie that was in theaters earlier this year, Cars. It reminds me of Lightning McQueen from Cars. At the beginning of the movie Lightning is only concerned with how great and how fast he is. He thinks that because he is really fast and red and sleek and flashy he can win the Piston Cup on his own and get that big endorsement/sponsorship deal. It is the end of the season and its supposed to be the last race of the season. The race starts and he does fine for a while in the race. In fact he is leading the race. Lightning does not want to pit at all, but he knows that he at least needs fuel to keep running. To save time he does not let his team change his tires through out the whole race. By not taking tires he ensures that he gets back on the track with the lead. He is faster than the rest of the cars in the race and as the laps wind down he is leading the race with no other cars even running on the same lap that he is running. But this is where the trouble starts. His pit crew had continued to try to call him in to get new tires, but Lightning tells them that he does not need them and he is really pretty rude to them. They are so hurt that they leave him there by himself for the rest of the race. Only his faithful hauler remains to help service him. As Lightning starts his last lap one of his warn out old tires pops. He manages to not crash and continues to try to drive around the track and as he struggles to continue each of his other three tires blow out. Now his closest pursuers are gaining on him. With his bare wheels grinding on the pavement and shooting sparks, Lightning McQueen manages to drag his chassis across the finish line in time to score a three way tie with the two other top competitors in the race. Now they have have to have an extra race to break the tie and decide who will win the season championship. It takes the results of that race and the events of the next week for Lightning McQueen to learn that everybody needs the support and help of friends some time.

Lightning eventually gets loaded into his hauler and they head out across the country. Lightning is still pushing. Even though his hauler is tired out Lightning coaxes him into trying to continue to drive straight though across the country to get to the site of the next race. They run into trouble as his hauler is driving very drowsily. They run into a ruff looking gang of tuners, and a hot rod, that harass the hauler and Lightning accidentally gets knocked right out of the trailer. He wakes up to find himself all alone on the highway. He drives around frantically not know where he is and even how to get where he is going. He ends up on a back road and rolls into what looks like a run down abandoned ghost town when he is just about out of gas and is nearly exhausted. He finds that there are still just a handful of die-hards hanging on there. This is where he starts to develop his character. While he is there he learns what it means to be part of a community and to care about other people or cars and even to put other cars’ interests and needs ahead of his own. When Lightning McQueen eventually makes it across the country to the tie breaker race at the end of week, he has learned that it takes help and support from a team to accomplish the greatest challenges. He also learns that winning at any cost may exact too high of a price from those around you.

I do not know about you, but I feel pretty tired these days. As I look around and talk to folks in our congregation I suspect that several of you all feel pretty much the same way. I have been serving this church for about thirteen weeks now. It seems longer, in a good way because we have done several things in that time with the hog roast and outdoor service, VBS, and the potluck and planning Sunday a couple of weeks ago. Then Friday night we had a good turn out and through a special church conference we voted to accept the purchase offer from the Church of Jubilee to purchase the Bennington building. We have been very busy over these past few months. Outside of church the children have gone back to school and those of us that had time off during the summer are back to the everyday grind. As we roll into October our church is continuing to be very busy. Today is the District Conference in Swartz Creek, Monday we have PPRC meeting to complete reports to be submitted 10-days before our church conference. Wednesday we have the Smorgasbord that many of you have already volunteered to prepare food for and help to serve. We have the Ad board meeting on Tuesday the 10th and then our church conference takes place on the 15th. Then to end the month we have the Bazaar on the 28th. It could make you tired just to think about it all.

Is anybody here familiar with the Bill Cosby comedy routine about his mother being sick and tired whenever Bill and his brother Russell would get in trouble with her. It goes something like this, “My mother she would always get on our case about how we would leave messes around the house. She would say, ‘I am just sick and tired of pickin’ up after you. You leave your dirty dishes sitting around and when you just drop your dirty clothes on the floor, do you think that I just enjoy cleaning up after you. I am just sick and tired of being your maid.’” Then Bill says that one time his mother was getting on his case and she started to say, “I am just so sick…” and he interrupted her and said, “and tired!” …. He said that he could not remember anything else that happened that day.

When I read our epistle lesson from James this morning, I read it like that. From the beginning of Chapter 5 verse 13, it goes like this, “Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.” I think that we can count ourselves in each of those categories and probably in both. Then in verse 14, “Are any among you sick.”…”Are any among you sick.” When I read that, I heard in my head, “and tired.” … Are any among you sick and tired? They should call the elders of the church and have them pray over them with oil in the name of the Lord. Verse 15, “The prayer of faith will save the sick (and the tired), and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.”
This is a powerful word for us, repeat…. And continuing through verse 16, “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” …”The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.”

It even lays out some evidence of that fact. Elijah (the prophet) was a human being like us. He was physically no different than you or I. But he was faithful, and that does make him different from some people. He prayed fervently that it might not rain. And what happened. Did it rain? Did it not rain for a couple days or even a couple of weeks? No it says, “and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.” Was that just a coincidence? Was it just a long and severe drought? No because in the end it says, “Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.”

My brothers and sisters in Christ, I tell you this morning that we need to take on the responsibility of praying intentionally and earnestly for each other. We need to be open and honest with each other when we are sick and tired and call on our fellow members of the church to have them pray for us.

What Comes First the Book or the Cover?

Authors of the Bible often look to nature for analogies to express spiritual truth. The book of James, controversial because of it emphasis on “good works,’ is perhaps best understood through the analogy of motion. Just as the winds blow the clouds across the sky, and rustle the leaves in the trees bringing motion to nature, so the presence of faith and the blowing of the Holy Spirit brings motion to the lives of Christians. In our reading this morning James first warns us against judging people by appearances and showing favoritism because of them, and second he teaches that faith without works is dead. These teachings lead me to two questions. First, are these teachings consistent with the rest of the Bible? Second, are these teachings consistent with each other?

Those questions led me to another question. Drawing from what James’ wrote, what comes first the book or the cover? When a person becomes a Christian, new life begins, and inevitably that life must express itself through spiritual motion, or good deeds. In James words, “what good is it if you say you have faith but do not have works?” 2:14.

Movement does not cause life, but it does invariably follow life. It’s a sure sign that life is present. Similarly, genuine faith in Christ should always result in actions that demonstrate faith.
As it was with Jesus’ teachings which we read last week in Mark chapter 8:34-38, in James’ letter he is not teaching us how to become a Christian, but rather how we should live after becoming a Christian. James was a leader of the Christian movement in the headquarters church in Jerusalem. He speaks or writes with authority and he speaks clearly. He gets right to the point and his words come with a punch as he tells Christians how we should act.

It might seem that James’ letter is being overly legalistic in its teachings, but it is apparent that those, to which James was writing, members of the early church, were not even flirting with legalism. They were living at the other extreme, ignoring the laws that God had clearly revealed. James had a simple remedy: James 1:22-25.

Who do we say that Jesus Is?

In our gospel lesson for today Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” and later he asked them, “Who do you say that I am?” This is an important question for people living today, not just for us in this church, but for society in general. Our country has the statement “In God We Trust” printed on our currency, and when we recite the pledge of allegiance we state that our nation is “under God”, but you do not hear much in polite company about Jesus. Who do we say that Jesus is? Does the way that we live our lives say anything to other people about who Jesus is? This scriptural text does more than talk about who Jesus is. It also teaches us about how Jesus lived his life and fulfilled God’s plan to bring salvation to mankind through his ministry, teachings, and sacrifice. Our human nature is to chase after material things. Even as Christians we still have to struggle with those human feelings. If we fall into that thinking we risk getting lost from the ministry that God has planned for us and that could prevent others from seeing Christ in us. If that happens it could hurt God’s plans to reach other non-Christians and minister to them so that they may ask Jesus to come into their hearts and thus gain salvation.

As our Gospel lesson starts, Jesus and his disciples are heading north from Bethsaida toward the region of Caesarea Philippi which is about 25-miles north of the Sea of Galilee. As it is recorded in the book of Mark, this is the beginning of Jesus’ trip that will end up in Jerusalem in about six months leading to Christ’s Passion. This is the beginning of a new phase of Jesus ministry to his disciples. Up until now he had made only veiled references to his true nature and mission with very vague references to the plan including his sacrifice for the world. From this point forward Jesus will teach more openly to his disciples about his true nature as the Son of God and about his death and resurrection. As Jesus was traveling a long with his disciples he asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” The disciples answered that some say John the Baptist, the prophet that had baptized Jesus and had been executed not that long before this account would have happened. Others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets. If this were true than our Christian religion would be pretty pointless wouldn’t it? If this were true than Jesus would have simply been a wise teacher perhaps, but still just a man that lived some two thousand years ago and died and was physically laid to rest in a grave.

Of course this is the not the right answer. So next Jesus asks, “What about you? Who do you say that I am?” Peter speaks up here and responds that, “You are the Messiah.” In studying this part of the scripture for today in a handful of Bible commentaries, I learned a couple of things, Peter was the spokesman for the disciples. He was not afraid to open his mouth, although it sometimes was followed by the insertion of his foot. It is likely that what Peter said was probably what at least some of the other disciples were thinking. When I read Peter’s confession of Christ, I want to read it with an exclamation mark, boldly proclaiming that Jesus is the Savior of all mankind, but that is not how it is printed in any of my bibles. He says this in a declarative statement. It looks like he thought that Jesus was the Christ or the Messiah. In accounts of this from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Peter adds, the Son of the Living God. But as this conversation and lesson proceeds it seems that Peter’s mind was not on a spiritual messiah, but rather on an earthly one. After this Jesus sternly warns them not to tell anyone about him. The commentaries that I use have a couple of different thoughts about this. Perhaps it was because Jesus was not ready to establish an earthly kingdom, because the plan was for him to first establish a heavenly one. Maybe it was because Jesus did not want them to politicize his role as Messiah.

Then Jesus begins to teach the disciples that the “Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this. This comes in sharp contrast to Peter’s declaration of Jesus as the Christ. It also marks a new stage in the disciples training. In the first half of Mark, references to Jesus’ true nature are veiled and predictions of his death are given in vague terms. After this Jesus speaks openly and clearly about both topics. He wanted the disciples to know that, although his enemies carrying out these evil actions would think that they were winning, his suffering and death were part of the plan. They were things that must happen to fufill the plan of salvation. Jesus must suffer and die as part of God’s plan. Jesus suffers out of obedience to God. As both true God and true Man, this was probably difficult for Jesus. As a person of the triune God, he was all powerful and immortal. He did not have to submit himself to death. As a human being dealing with temptations he did not relish the thought of his suffering and crucifixion. Jesus’ prayers at Gethsemane show that, but even in Gethsemane he prayed, “Father not my will but yours be done. As a leader and teacher of many people he could have started an uprising against the Romans and against the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law. As true God, his victory would have been assured, but that was not part of the plan. That would not have saved a single person’s soul from the penalty for sin, eternal death, eternal separation from God’s presence. Jesus teaches the disciples about his coming death repeatedly because he wants them to know that this is the way that it has to be.

We have come to Peter’s rebuke of Jesus. Remember what I said about Peter’s willingness to open his mouth and then insert his foot. Well here we go. The NIB says that Peter treats Jesus’ prophecy about his death and resurrection as the words of one possessed who must be exorcised. It is like he thought Jesus was mad when he predicted his death. It is as if Peter is saying, “What are you nuts, you cannot die and be the Messiah. You are supposed to be overthrowing the Romans and straightening out the Jewish religion and getting everybody here back on the right path.” Peter’s rebuke was similar to the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness by Satan, but this time Satan used one of Jesus’ closest disciples. Peter’s objections to this teaching are a foreshadowing of his denials of Christ after Jesus betrayed. They are a reflection of his own fear of suffering.

When Jesus turns his back to Peter to look at the rest of the disciples to rebuke him it was probably a message not just for Peter but for the rest of the twelve as well. Satan has just used one of his disciples to be a stumbling block to him. The other disciples may have been tempted to say the same thing at this time or later while they were following Jesus. Satan would succeed in leading Judas astray to become Jesus’ betrayer. Jesus is trying to caution them all against this temptation. Peter’s mind was running contrary to God’s plan and he needed to be corrected immediately and clearly. Peter’s was savoring earthly things. Part of sermon preparation includes reviewing the scripture in different translations of the Bible to see how things are stated in different terms. In the King James Version the words are different and to me the meaning comes out stronger. (Read Mark 8:33 from KJV Bible) It seems that Peter was thinking expectantly about Jesus establishing his kingdom in Israel and with Jesus as the messiah then they would not have to submit to Roman rule or all of the rules of the Pharisees.
The previous portions of our sermon scripture have only held indirect lessons for us. For example, that the disciples were human like us and flawed in the understanding of Jesus and like us they were sinful and could be led astray. The remainder of this scripture about Jesus teachings is either aimed at both the disciples and the rest of us or just right, square directly at us.

Jesus called the crowd to him along with his disciples. This is different from what we would read in the preceding chapters of Mark. In those accounts of Jesus ministry the crowd are coming after Jesus and at times Jesus is trying to move away from them. On some previous occasions Jesus had tried to call the disciples away with him so that he could teach them in private, but these lessons are for all of them and all of us. Jesus teaches the crowd and his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Over the past several weeks as we were studying in the book of John chapter 6, when Jesus was teaching the Jews after the feeding of the 5000 part of the conflict and debate there was related to this very concept. The people wanted Jesus to provide for them, for their daily physical needs, and they said, if he did that as a sign to them, then they would follow him or believe in him. Jesus is telling the people here that if they want to be followers of God and of Christ than they must not think of themselves first. They must put God first and take up whatever burden or task that God would set before them if they truly want to be Christians.

This runs counter to what we hear most of the time from our culture, not just based on what Americans value, but on what man values. The world teaches us through the media that we should be comfortable and have what we want. Like I talked about last week, commercials want us to believe that owning the latest computer, or a big screen plasma high definition TV, the right vehicle, or a cell phone/digital planner/video game/mp3 player with a built in camera is what we really need in life, or better yet all of the above, but that is not so. Even as Christians it is our human nature to seek comfort and avoid sacrifice, but material things will not save our souls. As both humans and Christians the danger lies in concluding that suffering and self-sacrifice are always undesirable.

In the record of the life of Joseph, the one that had the coat of many colors, not Jesus’ step-dad, Joseph had to endure much suffering and much self-sacrifice for the first thirty plus years of his life before God’s plan was revealed and he was able to help his family, his people survive a great famine. Only then did he know why his life had gone they way it did, but he had kept the faith all along the way. He had taken up his cross and followed Jesus thousands of years before Jesus ever physically lived on this earth. When I was graduating from college with my Associate’s degree in computer programming, I was not very mature in my Christian faith. I wanted to get out of my minimum wage job and get into the big money jobs that I kept hearing about in the news and reading about in magazines. I wanted to get married and buy a house and watch the dough roll in as I did my technical work. This was not God’s plan for my life. God kept me at my minimum wage job for another four years while he started to show me and teach me that he had other work for me to do. He continued to teach me that even as I finally did change jobs almost ten years ago. Through nine years of job insecurity, riding economic ebbs and flows and feeling the pressure from corporate plans to off shore work to developing countries where labor is cheap, God has taught me to trust in him not my job. He also continued to help me grow stronger, like a spotter working with a weightlifter, while I carried my burdens like my health issues and followed my path that would lead to ministry. Of course the secret here is that when we trust in God, he really does the heavy lifting. When we are struggling to find the right job or the right doctor and treatment for ourselves or our children, it may be that God has another plan for our lives then what we have envisioned. It is not God’s wish that we would needlessly suffer. If we ask him to work according to his will we might not get to a quick solution, but he will help us to reach the right resolution and ultimately when we follow Jesus we will reach the best destination.

Next Jesus teaches us, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” The person that is devoted to physical life will miss eternal life. Amassing a fortune in worldly goods will do nothing to save your soul. It does not do a person any good to earn and love only material things, if that person dies and does not have Christ in his heart he is lost and he cannot take his possessions with him. He also cannot trade all of those earthly riches to buy eternal life. The person that is devoted to Christ is willing to lose his physical life and so he gains true life, spiritual life. Jesus’ teaching about this is not a description of the way of salvation, but of the philosophy of life for the disciple.

In the last part of our scriptural text Jesus says, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation…”This lesson about people being ashamed to stand up for Jesus contrasts with the one about believers having a willingness to lose their live for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of the Gospel. This reminds me of myself. Even as I started to work my way into ministry through increased service in the church and lay speaking training, I kept very quiet about it at work. I did not want my pursuit of the ministry to make me a target either for ridicule at work or a target for lay-off. When I finally decided to share my faith and work toward the ministry with my co-workers and even my leaders I was able to draw a closer connection with other Christians in my workplace. It gave me new opportunities to minister to other people. It may not always be part of God’s plan for me or for some one else, but so far each time I have been bold about my faith and call to ministry in the workplace, God has continued to preserve and prosper me in my job. To be ashamed is to deny Christ in the hour of trial rather than own him even at the risk of death. Denial is taking one’s stand with the sinful generation. Jesus uses the term adulterous in this case in a spiritual sense to describe unfaithfulness to God. When our Lord Jesus Christ comes as Judge he will disown those who have disowned him.

When I first studied this scripture as my chosen text for my sermon for License to Preach school, I thought that it would be easy to preach on because it says so much about what it means to be a Christian. Then I was pretty intimidated because so much of it is a direct record of Jesus speaking and teaching, and what could I, a simple and limited man add to that. But the lesson for the people living at the time that Jesus was on earth and for people today is this. Applying these teachings of Jesus to our lives may not make us rich according to the world’s values, but it will lead us to a spiritually rewarding life of service through which God will bless us spiritually in eternal life.

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

Our sermon text this morning takes us back into the book of John chapter 6. This began with the feeding of the 5000 and the Jews wanting to make Jesus their king, Later it continued with Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee to meet his disciples as they attempted to cross over to the other side of the stormy sea, and finally when we left this series a couple of weeks ago the Jews were arguing with Jesus about his teachings especially what he was teaching about himself.

When I read today’s scripture I wonder if this record is an example of a way that God might harden the hearts of those that do not want to believe in Jesus’ teachings. I think that Jesus’ statement to the Jews about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, does two things. It shows that Jesus is teaching about spiritual things and that the Jews were thinking about worldly things.

When Jesus tells the Jews that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood if they want to live forever, that would seem to go very much against Jewish law that was handed down by God. Even from a clean or kosher animal the Jews would not consume blood. The blood of an animal could be offered as part of a sacrifice to God, for instance as part of a burnt offering, but to drink it, that would be, well sacrilegious.

In Leviticus 17:10-11 it reads “If anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens who reside among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut that person off from the people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar; for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement.”

Eating the flesh of a person and drinking his blood would then be a very sinful thing to do, something abhorrent to God under the old laws of the Old Testament covenant between God and his chosen people. We understand that when Jesus says this he is talking in spiritual terms that those that believe in him and accept him as their savior from sin and the devil will be taking into them his body and blood for the salvation of their eternal souls. Later Jesus would institute the sacrament of communion for his disciples and his church to use to share in his body and blood spiritually.

This emphasizes that Jesus was talking about spiritual things, spiritual life through the sharing in his blood that would be shed for the atonement of all sins, and sharing in Jesus’ body which would be the Christian church universal, the body of believers.

The Jews that were debating with Jesus had their minds on earthly physical things. They wanted a king that could fill their physical bodies and sustain their physical lives. They wanted an earthly king and an earthly kingdom. But Jesus tried to teach them that those that have only earthly bread to eat may be filled for today and yet die tomorrow. For the believers in Christ that shared spiritually in the body and blood of Jesus, they would never die, but they would live forever with Jesus in heaven.

Jesus refers to himself as the Bread of Life six times in the sixth chapter of the book of John. In John 6:33 he says, “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” John 6:35 “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” And still the Jews would not believe, in John 6:41 it says, “Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that cam down from heaven.’ They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say that, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Their hearts were hardened against Jesus’ words. Jesus tries again to teach them about his true nature in John 6:47-51 “Very truly, I tell you whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors are the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

This lesson is very fitting for a communion Sunday. The Wycliffe Bible Commentary summarizes Jesus’ message from John 6 verses 51-58 well: “The Eucharistic food and drink are physically bread and wine, spiritually the Flesh and Blood of the Son of man: the true food and drink because they effect the sacred union of the Son of God with those who believe on him, and thus communicate eternal life and guarantee immortality. The union of the Father and the Son is thereby extended to embrace the believers also. As the Father communicates life to the Son, so the Son communicates life to those who feed on Him, and will bestow on them immortality.”
The promises that we hear and see in the media everyday from commercial advertisers are at worst false and at best just examples of fleeting gratification. The Jews that Jesus was teaching by the Sea of Galilee were grasping for fleeting gratification from Jesus and by association they were asking for that from God. “Give us bread to eat” they were saying because God had sent their ancestors manna from heaven when they were traveling through the desert. However that bread from heaven did not save the souls of those ancestors, and although Jesus could have provided the Jews of his day with all of the bread and fish that they could eat everyday for the rest of their lives, that also would not have saved their souls. The only true hope of salvation that the Israelites in the desert had was the same promise that Jesus was making to the Jews that were standing in front of him at that village by the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and it is the same promise that God makes to us today. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, and spiritually partake of his blood shed in atonement for our sins and share in the fellowship of the body of Christ, then we will have eternal life. Our spirits will never be separated from God and we will never be hungry or thirsty again. Amen.

Open the Door and See All the People

Open the Doors and See All the People

Sermon text: Romans 10:23-48 and Luke 6:46 – 7:10

The scriptures that I chose for this morning are two examples of the way God reaches out to people of all races, ethnic groups, and stations. It does not matter to God whether you’re a fisherman, a tax collector, rich or poor, young or old. It only matters to God that you put your faith in him.
The reading from Luke is an example of such a faith, not from Jesus own people, the Jews, but from a centurion. I checked the dictionary and a Centurion is commander from the Roman army, a leader of 100 soldiers. So this is a man who is used to giving orders and having people follow them. He would be in Israel to help the Roman empire enforce Roman law and to support the Roman government over the people of Israel. We do not have his name here but this centurion is probably very different from most Roman officers in Israel. He is not there to oppress the people, he has apparently learned about the Hebrews and grown to love and respect them. He has heard of Jesus and his teachings. It even says that he built a synagogue for the Jews in his area.
So when this officer of the Roman empire and leader of Roman soldiers has highly valued servant that is is sick and about to die and he hears that Jesus is nearby in Capernaum, he first sends some of the elders of the Jews to plead on his behalf, to ask Jesus to come and heal the servant. The elders told Jesus about how this man had built a synagogue for them. This information peaked Jesus’ interest enough for him to go with them. Then as Jesus was approaching the house the centurion sent some of his friends to carry this message, “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.” This is a Roman centurion, a leader among men, one who has the power and authority to tell his soldiers to go and they go or come and they come, but he says, “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.” He knows that Jesus has the power and authority of God. Jesus is so amazed at this man’s faith that her turns to the crowd that is following him as he goes and says, I tell you I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” When the men returned to the house they found that the centurion’s servant had been healed due to the faith of the centurion.
The second reading, from Acts is a portion of the episode recorded in Acts chapter 10 and 11 involving Cornelius, a Roman centurion in the Italian regiment, and Peter the former disciple of Jesus and leader of the early Christian movement. If that was all we knew of them we would expect that Cornelius would be an oppressor of Peter and the other Christians in the early church. That might be what we would have expected, but our God works in mysterious ways. The scripture tells us that Cornelius and all his family were devout and God-fearing. At this early stage in the growth of the Christian movement the apostles had aimed their teaching and preaching toward their Hebrew brethren. So Cornelius had not heard about the Christian movement, and the last thing on Peter’s mind would be going to teach and preach in the home of a Gentile, let alone a Roman soldier.
Now let’s take a look at what happens when you insert the moving of the Holy Spirit into Cornelius’ and Peter’s lives. At the beginning of Chapter 10 you can read the account of Cornelius’ encounter with an angel of God. The angel tells Cornelius to send some men to Joppa to the house where Simon Peter is staying. In faith Cornelius sends two of his servants and one of his attendants, another devout soldier to seek out Peter.
Now we turn to Peter. He is staying in Joppa with other early Christians. Peter has been a devout Jew following the laws and traditions of the covenant made between God and Abraham, and Moses, and Joshua. He is a devoted disciple of Jesus, and a strong leader and speaker in the early Christian movement filled with the Holy Spirit. God prepares him for his encounter with Cornelius with a vision as he is praying on the roof of the house where he has been staying. God shows him this large sheet filled with all kinds of animals, birds, and reptiles. Peter is hungry and God tells him to kill and eat, but Peter says, “Surely not Lord!”
Under Jewish law a devout Jew would not eat anything that was not considered kosher or ceremonially clean. God tells him, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” This vision was repeated to Peter three times and then while Peter is wondering about it the men sent by Cornelius arrive. God tells Peter about the men and tells him not to hesitate to go with them.
Let’s think about that for a moment. The early Christians were persecuted by both the Romans and the Jewish elite. They had been locked up and stoned because they were teaching about Jesus as the Savior and Son of God. So what would you have expected them to do when a soldier and two other men come to the house where they are staying especially if they knew that they had been sent by a Roman centurion? Lock the front door and run out the back? Well once the men stated their purpose, Peter invited them in as guests and then the next day he went with them from Joppa to Caesarea to the home of Cornelius.
Peter went to Cornelius’ house even though it was against Jewish law for him to associate with or visit a gentile, but God had shown Peter, through the vision that he had given him, that he should not call any man impure or unclean.
Cornelius told of the vision that God had given to him about Peter. Peter proceeds to teach Cornelius and his whole household about Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior of all. He told them of the power and Spirit of Jesus and the movement that had started in Judea. He told them of how the Jews killed Jesus but God raised him from the dead on the third day. Peter told them the whole story of salvation and something else unheard of to that date happened. In the same way that the Holy Spirit had come in to the disciples when they were praying at the temple at the time we remember as Pentecost; the Holy Spirit filled that house and the people, these gentile people, Roman citizens and soldiers, were baptized by the spirit. They began speaking in tongues and praising God.
Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They received the Holy Spirit just as we have.’ So he ordered that they should be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
No matter who we are, where we are, or what we are, these two stories show us that when we put our faith in God, and ask Jesus Christ to be our Savior the Holy Spirit will find us. It does not matter whether we are young or old, black or white, rich or poor. It does not matter whether we are in a church or in our homes, or offices, or factories, or at work on a farm. God knows where we live, and work, and play, and worship. God hears us wherever we are when we pray and praise him. God’s presence is with us wherever we are. No matter where we gather to worship and fellowship with God, wherever two or more gather in God’s name, the Holy Spirit will be there also.

Message from August 20 2006

This is a re-worked sermon that I first used when I was filling the pulpit at the UMC church in the town where I live. I have re-used three times over now in three other churches. I have re-fined it each time, but I still do not have a title for it.

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When I researched commentaries for our gospel lesson from John 10.22-30, I read that the Feast of Dedication is the same thing as Hanukah and that Solomon’s Colonnade ran along the eastern wall of Herod’s temple in an area that gentiles were allowed to enter. The inner areas of the temple were reserved for the Jews. I thought this was interesting because it shows that Jesus was walking and teaching in an area where Jews and gentiles alike could hear him. Jesus probably was teaching in the temple at least in part because it was wintertime and he wanted to have some shelter from the cold. The Jews in the temple used this occasion as an opportunity to try to “get dirt” on Jesus. They were looking for evidence to take to the Sanhedrin to charge Jesus with breaking Jewish law. This was about two years before they would arrest and eventually crucify Jesus.
In the Psalm, and the readings from John and Revelation for today there is a recurring theme of God as the shepherd and the body of believers as His flock or sheep. The theme of Jesus as the shepherd spoke to me. In the book of John, Jesus refers to himself as the shepherd of his people three times, and there are 24 references throughout the Bible about God being the shepherd of believers. This reminds me of the lesson we studied during Vacation Bible School about shepherds and their flocks. When a thief comes to steal the sheep they do not recognize his voice and would not follow him, but the shepherd knows his sheep by name. They know his voice, so when the Good Shepherd calls to them they follow his voice. A hired man does not care for the sheep as the Good Shepherd does, so when the wolf comes around to attach the sheep, the hired man will run off. The Good Shepherd stands and defends his sheep. He protects his sheep and lays down his life for the sheep. What better way could there be to describe the way that Jesus died for our sins to save us from the power and attacks of the devil.
Verses 9 through 12 of Revelation Chapter 7 remind me of the verses in the gospels that talk of Jesus’ Triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday before that first Easter. There are similarities: the people with palm branches singing out praises to Jesus, but there are very important differences. On Palm Sunday some of the people were true believers in Christ as the Son of God and Savior of all and some were just people in celebratory mood as they made their way to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. Many of them were Jews looking for a man that would lead them to rise up and throw off the Roman rulers and establish an earthly kingdom. Almost none of them were there to stand up for Jesus on Maundy Thursday or when he was crucified. But the “great multitude that no one can count” are “from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They are standing before the throne of God and singing praises and proclaiming His eternal heavenly kingdom.
If you were a fly on the wall witnessing such an amazing scene you might ask, “Who are these people?” and “How did they get there? The writer of Revelation asks and answers the question for us in verses 13 and 14. These are true believers in God the Father, God the Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit! We should be those people. I am just a man, I cannot see as God sees and do not know what God knows, but I believe that we can and will be part of that Great Multitude. If you are not sure that you are going to be there you need to pray to God today and ask him to forgive you of your sins and ask Jesus to come into your heart. For all Christians I see a challenge in today’s scriptures. You and I know if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer. We know when we have been washed and made clean in the blood of the Lamb, but we also know people: friends, neighbors, relatives that do not know God as we do. They do not know that Jesus died for them. That Jesus died for their sins. They do not know God loves them so much that he gave his one and only son, to die so that they might be washed clean of their sins and reconciled to Him. For the sake of God’s church we need to step out in faith and reach out to them. We need to invite them to come to church with us. We need to share the story of our salvation with them.
The words of Jesus in John 10:25-30 are a prophesy that all believers will see fulfilled at the second coming of the Lamb. The message in Revelation 7:9-17 paints a picture in words of the fulfillment of Jesus promise. I know that I will be there and that I will see your faces there, but we cannot be satisfied with that. While we are here on this earth we need to be sure that we do everything that we can, through Jesus Christ, to reach out to our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. We want to see them when we are before the throne of God. We know that it is not easy to speak to non-Christians about God, but we can be assured that when we do, Jesus will be right there with us. In Matthew 28:19 and 20 Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Amen!

Bread for Today Vs. Bread for Life Eternal

This was my sermon for today. This past week was extra busy with party prep for yesterday's party. I also did some candidacy work and went to the church ad-council meeting. I feel pretty much like a pastor now, since I have done some visiting at the hospital, care center, and in member's homes.

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This week in our Gospel reading we are continuing with the account of Jesus’ ministry one day after he had fed the 5000. Jesus is trying to teach the Jews about his own nature and the Jews are doubting him. Jesus has told them that he comes from and was sent by God the Father, but they say, “Don’t we know this man?” “Don’t we know his father?” “How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’”
These people have gone from wanting to force Jesus to be there king, because he had fed the multitude with just the five loaves and two fishes, to now doubting Jesus’ teaching about being sent by God and even God’s plan for salvation. The people want a prophet that will keep their bellies full and dazzle them with even more signs and wonders.
Jesus is trying to turn their minds onto the things of heaven, that last, rather than earthly temporal things. Jesus teaches them from the old testament where it said that they would be taught by God. He tells them again that any people that has heard the teachings of God and learned them will be lead by the scriptures of the old testament to him as the promised Messiah.

Jesus is trying to teach the Jews that he is the way to eternal life, and he is trying to teach them a little bit about the nature of eternal life. When W.B. Hinson was faced with an illness that threatened to end his life on earth he set his mind on his spiritual life, on eternal life. Thinking of the fullness and duration of this wonderful life, W. B. Hinson, a great preacher of a past generation, spoke from his own experience just before he died. He said, "I remember a year ago when a doctor told me, 'You have an illness from which you won't recover.' I walked out to where I live 5 miles from Portland, Oregon, and I looked across at that mountain that I love. I looked at the river in which I rejoice, and I looked at the stately trees that are always God's own poetry to my soul. Then in the evening I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting His lamps, and I said, ' I may not see you many more times, but Mountain, I shall be alive when you are gone; and River, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the sea; and Stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great down pulling of the material universe!' " This eternal life is the life that should have been important to the Jews that Jesus was teaching, instead of their fleeting life on earth.

For the past month Jenny and I have been working more and more on putting together plans for a party to celebrate completion of major construction on the addition to our home and to thank all of the people that helped us to finish that work. We put this party together with a lot of prayer, just as we had worked on the addition construction project with a lot of prayer, asking God to lead us through it. Each day this past week we spent time cleaning up our house, and decorating and finishing off things in our new rooms. We spent time gathering groceries and supplies for the meal during our party. We spent the better part of the day Saturday from about 9 until 5 getting the final touches completed and the food presented and prepared. In fact, by 7 o’clock last evening, we were both so tired from working on the preparations that we both probably could have packed it in for the night and gone to bed. We put that party together by the grace of God and we were doing it with Christian hearts, but it was still just a temporal thing. We fed people their evening meal, plus all of the toasted marshmallows and s’mores that they could eat for one day. Maybe the fact that we started the party by thanking everyone there for their support of our building project through their prayers, blood and sweat and by thanking God for his many gifts and blessings was a witness that might lead some to think about their relationship with God and their need for eternal life, but otherwise it was a very temporal thing. The food that we ate yesterday, like the food that we will eat today will be burned up and used by our bodies, and then, eventually, we will be hungry again, but the bread from heaven, which is Jesus Christ, feeds us spiritually and we when have eaten of it, our spirits will never go hungry again.

Our neighbors from two doors down came to our party yesterday. In the summer of 1956 they were the ones that built the original part of the house that we now live in. They brought with them a photo album that had pictures of the house and what their life was like in it with their children 50 years ago. Back then it looked different, it did not have front door, it had one at the north end of the house. Back then it did not have a bathroom inside, it had a little house out back. It was very interesting to see what the house looked like fifty years ago when they lived in it and to see how it has been changed through the years as other owners and residents have come and gone. The addition that we built in the last year has probably been one of the biggest transformations to it., but all of this is temporary stuff it does not matter in eternity. The homes that we are living in now seem pretty important to us today, but the one that really matters is the mansion in God’s house that Jesus went to prepare for each of us for our eternal lives in heaven.
In this morning’s gospel Jesus repeats the teaching that he had given in the reading from John for last week, when the Jews had challenged him about how God had provided manna for the Israelites while they were in the dessert. He repeats the image of himself as the bread of life as he says, “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Here he is using the imagery of bread because it has been something that the people have just said that they want him to continue providing because to them it satisfies their hunger and sustains their lives. Jesus is trying to teach them very clearly that the important bread that God provide is the Savior that can redeem them from sin and provide salvation so that they can live forever with God in heaven. Jesus says, “Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Do you think that the Jews will understand and accept this teaching? Will they be able to turn their minds toward heavenly and eternal salvation rather than earthly satisfaction of their physical needs? You can read on with this at home, or if you can wait for the next episode we will have a chance to continue with this record in next week’s gospel lesson. This same question is important for us today, Are our minds on heavenly things, salvation through Jesus Christ, the bread of life, that brings to us eternal life? Let us pray that they are. Amen.

Unity in the Spirit, Unity in the Body of Christ

This is my sermon text for the week 08/06/06. This was my first time leading a communion service. It was quite an experience and I felt that it went a long way toward building the pastor and congregant relationship.

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Unity in the Spirit, Unity in the Body of Christ

In a Peanuts cartoon by Charles Schultz, “Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn't. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus.
"These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold."
"Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get organized like that?"”

I wasn’t sure why I felt led to preach from this lesson on unity from Ephesians 4 today and then I thought about the political ads that are showing up in increasing numbers on TV and radio as we enter election season. As I thought further about it, I remembered the news coverage of the conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on the north end of Israel and in Lebanon. I also thought of the daily reports of terrorist attacks perpetrated by various terror groups in Iraq against American soldiers, and aid workers from countries around the globe, and average Iraqi citizens that really want nothing more than to go to work or school and live their lives in peace. Then it became clear, the world in which we live is filled with divisions. Us and them. Have’s and have not’s. But in the Christian church, the body of Christ, we are all united through the acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior and the baptism of water and the Holy Spirit.

John Wesley once said, “I want the whole Christ for my Savior, the whole Bible for my book, the whole Church for my fellowship, and the whole world for my mission field.” I have not been here long, so I don’t really know if there are any divisive issues or feelings in our church. I do have a sense that this is a faithful strong small body of Christians, yet no two people here is exactly alike. We are all different ages. We have different family backgrounds. We have lived through different experiences in our lives. Even our stories of how we came to know God as our creator and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior are all at least slightly different. Many of us may have grown up in Christian homes and had parents that brought us to church and Sunday school almost every Sunday. There may also be other folks here that learned of the teachings of the Bible and turned to Christ for redemption later in life. Although we are each individual persons, we are all members of the body of Christ.

Let’s take a look at why Paul may have felt it necessary to write this passage on unity in his letter to the church in Ephesus. In Acts 19, we can read the accounts of Paul’s early experiences in Ephesus. Paul went to a group of believers there that had already accepted the baptism of John the Baptist and he taught them and laid hands on them and they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then Paul went to the synagogue and spoke out boldly and the scripture says that some stubbornly refused to believe and spoke out against the Christian Church. So if it says that some stubbornly refused to believe, that must mean that others that Paul found in the synagogue must have become believers. So Paul left with those that did believe and went to a lecture hall. My Student Bible has a note about lecture halls from this time period. These halls were normally converted training rooms for Olympic athletes. There probably would have been quite a diverse group of people in that hall. So the Ephesian church is born with a congregation of different peoples, converted Jews, and converted believers in John the Baptist, and converted believers of pagan religions and idol worshipers. Later there is a riot because some of the Ephesians and others are turning to this new Christian faith and away from pagan worship of idols. The artisans and silversmiths that had made a good business of crafting those idols were angry because Paul’s teaching and preaching was bad for business. Do you suppose such a body of believers would experience any problems with differences of opinion or disagreements as they tried to continue to grow and learn and worship in communion with one another?
So Paul writes to them from prison to remind them that they have all been baptized by the Spirit and therefore they should approach each other in all gentleness and humility. He reminds them that they are all members of one body and one Spirit. Paul also teaches that God has given them all gifts and graces. They may come in different areas or forms, like teaching, preaching, or other work for ministry that builds up the church, which is the body of Christ. But no gift is more important or more right than any other.

So what does this mean for us?
In the book The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. The author wrote, “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
Differences in age, economic standing, or political beliefs are not what really matters when you get right down to it. Those are all superficial and temporal divisions. The issue that matters is that we agree on the basic values of the Christian church. In simplest terms, that means that we know that God created everything that exists, Sin entered the world through Adam and Eve and has been passed down to everyone that has lived since then except Jesus Christ. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus was the one and only Son of God. He suffered and died on the Cross to wash away our sins, and on the third day he rose again. He defeated power of sin and the devil. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father. Some day he will come again to judge all people, sending the unbelievers away from God’s presence to Hell and bringing the believers home with him to be in the presence of God in Heaven forever.
If we share these beliefs in common with one another, than it will be evident in the fruits of our faith, which is the way that we serve Christ through helping each other. Whether you teach a bible class, help with making crafts at VBS, send a card to a family grieving the loss of a loved one, give a shut-in a ride to a doctors appointment or the grocery store, or provide the bread and juice for communion, you are all using the gifts given to you according to the grace of God after being united in the washing of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

A Good Problem to Have

This is an outline for the second sermon that I preached at Middleton. This was for the service on 07/30/06. This has been the only time so far that I have preached from an outline without any manuscript. It was a different preaching and teaching experience working that way.

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A Good Problem to Have

I. The Feeding of the 5000 from John 6:1-21
a. What happened before this:
i. Jesus performing miracles
ii. Jesus sends out the 12
iii. The disciples returned to tell Jesus what happened while they were on their own
iv. Jesus called the disciples to come away with him to a lonely place so that they could rest.
b. Closer look at what happened
i. Jesus knew that they all could have used a rest, but the people needed to be taught and ministered to…
II. Illustration – VBS
a. What happened before this:
i. Deb Blaha and I were discussing new pastoral appointment
ii. Desire to have a VBS program before the end of July
iii. Everyone is very busy with family, work, and summer activities
iv. Outdoor service and hog roast
v. License to preach school
b. Closer look at what happened
i. Even though we were all tired after working and busy eventful days, we knew that a VBS program is an important event in the life of the church each year and the children need to be taught and ministered to…
III. Illustration – Pastoral Care / Hospital Visitation
a. Updates through Pastor Gordon and Deb Blaha
b. Attended worship to find out more
c. Updates through Nancy and Deb Blaha at VBS
d. Pastoral care concern for Blaha family
e. Hospital visitation for Loreta Warren
IV. Wrap-up
a. God knows the ministry needs that members of his family have and what needs members of the community have. God has given this congregation many gifts for mission, ministry, outreach, and witness. He knows what they are, even if I do not and even if you do not.
b. God also knows the things that we need to sustain ourselves. His grace is sufficient for all. When we are weak then God is our strength. Our rock and our fortress. When we offer up what we have. Whether it is. Five small barley loaves and two fish or a handful of volunteers and helpful parents with various gifts and talents, God can make it more than enough to do his work and meet the needs of his people.

V. What we learned at VBS
a. VBS song or songs
b. God loves you
i. The account of Naomi and Ruth
ii. Psalm 103:8
c. God treasures you
i. Jesus teaching that he is the good shepherd
ii. John
d. God is always with you
i. The account of the disciples waiting and praying in the upper room
ii. Matthew