Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Kingdom Ethics

Christ the King Sunday
November 26, 2017
Matthew 25:31-46

            I mentioned last week that the parable of the talents, or eight bags of gold, was the third of four stories that Jesus tells in this part of Matthew about what the kingdom of heaven will be like at the end of time. Today’s Gospel is the fourth story. In addition to stories about be prepared, keep watching and waiting, and use what God has given you, we now have this judgment story about the sheep and the goats. To many of us, this is a familiar judgment scene. Christ the King has come in all his glory and it is judgment day. With all the angels and all the nations gathered around, Jesus separates the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Or, interestingly enough, in the Ezekiel passage that we read, the shepherd separates sheep from sheep.[1] Jesus tells the sheep on his right about all the good things they did, taking care of the least, the last, and the lost, visiting the sick and those in prison, clothing those in need of clothes, feeding the hungry, and welcoming the stranger. The sheep are surprised and ask Jesus, “When did we do these things for you?” And Jesus says, “Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.”[2] Then, to those on his left, Jesus condemns, saying, “I was hungry and you gave me no meal, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was homeless and you gave me no bed, I was shivering and you gave me no clothes, Sick and in prison, and you never visited.”[3] And the goats are surprised and ask, “When did we see sick or in prison or homeless or hungry or in need? If we’d known it was you, we would have helped you!”[4] And Jesus replies, “Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.”[5]
            It’s interesting that both the sheep and the goats are surprised. Neither group thought much about how their actions affected the poor, the homeless, the hungry, the sick, the prisoner, and the stranger. They lived their lives, did their thing, and now actions they hadn’t thought much about are influencing their final end. The sheep didn’t really consider that visiting the sick was something that their shepherd would notice. They believed Jesus when he said earlier in Matthew that the most important laws and commandments were to love God and love your neighbor as yourself, and loving your neighbor meant helping them when you saw a need.[6] Again, the goats didn’t think much about it, either, other than to believe that they would recognize Jesus if they saw him, and they didn’t see him in the sick or homeless or hungry or imprisoned or refugee.  If Jesus had been among them, then they would have helped, or so they believe.
It reminds me of the story about the new pastor who dressed up as a homeless person his first Sunday at his new church.  Have y’all heard this story?  As the congregation files in for worship that morning, most of them ignore him as he’s sitting there, maybe a couple pay attention to him, and something like just one or two people offer any help to him.  Then, when the new pastor is introduced before the service starts, he rises from the back pew, takes off his homeless disguise, and reveals himself as their new pastor.  The church is shocked and ashamed of themselves and learn a good lesson about whether they’d be among the sheep or the goats.  The truth is that we don’t want to think about judgment. We resist the idea that we need judgment.[7] That’s for other people. We don’t need judgment. We do the best we can and when we don’t, well, we have excuses ready. Surely, not us, Lord, just like Peter says in the very next chapter of Matthew when Jesus tells him that he’s going to deny Jesus three times before the cock crows.[8] We like to think better of ourselves. Goats do not see themselves as goats any more than the sheep recognize themselves as sheep.[9] Remember, both groups were surprised. Both groups failed to recognize Jesus among the poor and the needy. What if it’s because good behavior doesn’t come from trying to be good? After all, we’re saved by faith and not by our actions.[10] Yet, if we have faith, it will show itself by what we do.[11] Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives the analogy that “every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”[12] By our fruit, by our actions, we show our faith and what we really believe.
One of my favorite classes in seminary was Christian Ethics.[13] And I loved it because the way the professor taught it made sense to me. He explained that there are different kinds of ethics, even among Christians. There are those who believe in Universal Ethics, that what is true for one is true for all. For example, the Catholic Church uses universal ethics, which is why when a statement comes out, it’s claimed for all people. There was another category called Subversive Ethics, and this is where feminism and liberation theology falls, lifting up those who are left out when you say everyone. This strand says that what’s good and true depends on where you’re standing. Good news to someone who’s hungry is a hot meal, whereas a hot meal isn’t a big deal to you or me. Finally, the third major category he called Ecclesial Ethics, or Christian Ethics, that what I believe as a Christian is applicable to Christians, and I cannot hold non-Christians to the same expectations. The reason why is because Christians should look first to the transformation brought about in Christ, and not to society, for the source of our ethics. The professor also said that with Christian ethics, it’s about how we’re formed and how we’re shaped that influences our decisions.
This is different from situational ethics, where what you decide to do depends on each situation and each decision becomes a major dilemma on what to do. However, those of us who follow Jesus, who are formed by Jesus and our life in Christ, don’t have a big dilemma each time. The decision was already made when we decided to follow Jesus. Do I or don’t I help someone in need? Jesus says we’re to help. There’s no debate, there’s no crisis moment. One of the classic examples in situational ethics is your wife who is super sick and you can’t afford the medicine that will save her. Do you break into the pharmacy or do you let her die? Well, this ethic turns that on its head, because as Christians we believe that death is not the end, we believe we will see each other again. We’re not afraid of death. Plus, Jesus says don’t steal, don’t covet what’s not yours. So, it’s hard, but no, you don’t break in and rob the pharmacy. Because that’s who you are. The decision was already made in the decision to follow Jesus. There’s no crisis moment or agonizing decision. When someone asks you to pray, you pray. When you say you will pray, you pray. When you see a need you can fill, you do it. The sheep weren’t out there searching for ways to help, they helped the least of these as opportunities arose, that’s why they didn’t stand out in their memory. To be a sheep, you don’t have to go looking for someone in need. Someone in need of a kind word or gentle touch or helping hand will come your way soon enough. And, since you’ve already decided to follow Jesus, to believe in him and obey his commands, then there is no decision about how you’ll respond. You’ll respond with love, because that’s who you are in Christ and as a subject in his kingdom.
In the Gospel of Matthew, “Jesus does not instruct disciples that they should become the salt of the earth or the light of the world; he tells them they are [the salt of the earth and the light of the world]. Likewise, Jesus does not command his followers to hunger and thirst for justice, pursue peace, and so forth; he blesses those who [already] do [in the Beatitudes] (5:1-16). [This final] Judgment simply brings out a reality that has been present all along.”[14] This is who you are, because you belong to Christ. “You are the light of the world.”[15] So, don’t hide your light but “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”[16]
The separation of the sheep and the goats comes down to one question: Do you take care of those in need? No conditions on who that person is, nationality, language, age, gender, sexual orientation, legal status, accusations against them. If you see someone in need and you can provide that need, do you do it? I know for many of us, that answer is yes. I know, because you’ve told me. And maybe you didn’t realize you were sharing with me a time you visited Jesus in prison or when he was sick, or fed him when he was hungry, or gave him clothing when he didn’t have any, or welcomed him when he was a stranger, and that’s okay if you didn’t recognize him. Because the point isn’t that you recognized Jesus, the point is that you met a need, that you obeyed Jesus’ commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, that you showed love to someone in need in a way that made a meaningful difference to that person. You’ve heard of the golden rule? Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. A few years ago the “platinum rule” started making the rounds: Do unto others as they’d have you do unto them. Giving a coat to someone who’s hungry isn’t helpful. They’re still hungry; that basic need still isn’t being met. I read a children’s paraphrase of this passage that I thought was really helpful in terms of thinking about this a slightly different way:
“I sat alone in the cafeteria, with little to eat, and you sat with me and shared your lunch. Kids laughed at my old clothes, but you treated me as if they were brand new. I was never chosen for any team, but when it was your turn to choose, you chose me. Everyone laughed at my mistakes, but you said kind words to make me feel better. When I stayed home, I thought no one would miss me, but you called me and asked when I would be back.”[17] That’s what it means to follow King Jesus. That’s what it looks like to “do unto the least of these, our brothers and sisters.”[18] May God grant us the grace and courage to do so.




[1] Ezekiel 34:22
[2] Matthew 25:40, MSG
[3] Matthew 25:42-43, MSG
[4] Children of God Storybook Bible by Desmond Tutu
[5] Matthew 25:45
[6] Matthew 22:37-39
[8] Matthew 26:33-35
[10] Galatians 2:16
[11] James 2:17-18
[12] Matthew 7:17-20, NIV
[13] Professor Sam Wells, Duke Divinity School, Spring 2009
[15] Matthew 5:14a
[16] Matthew 5:16
[18] Matthew 25:40

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Risky Business

24th Sunday after Pentecost
November 19, 2017
Matthew 25:14-30

            The middle hymn we just sang, “A Charge to Keep I Have,” is one that holds special significance for me because of my mom. My mom is a pediatric nurse practitioner and, a few years ago, won an award for excellence in nursing. In her speech, she quoted from this hymn. “A charge to keep I have, a God to glorify… To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill…” You see, for my mom, being a nurse has always been about fulfilling God’s call. She has always felt very clearly called to be a nurse. She has certain gifts for it and she was called to it. When I was in college, we had this ongoing conversation, because while I was an elementary education major, I never felt called to be a teacher. Teaching is a gift, and so I shared it. Another gift is an ability to connect fairly easily with most children, and so I went into elementary education. God gives us gifts to share, and so I was sharing. It was as simple as that for me. But later, I did feel called to serve in Nicaragua, and y’all have heard at least part of my call story to become a pastor. Teaching was my idea; being a pastor was not.  
            The Gospel we read this morning, often called the parable of the talents, or the eight bags of gold, is the third out of four stories Jesus tells back to back in this part of Matthew. For Jesus, it’s Tuesday, during what we now call Holy Week. It’s after the triumphal entry of Palm Sunday and two days before the last supper and the events of Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday. During that time, Jesus tells the disciples four stories about what the kingdom of heaven is going to be like at the end of time. The first story is a comparison of a faithful servant whom the master finds still at work upon returning home versus a wicked servant who gives up watching for his master’s return and stars beating his fellow servants and getting drunk. Lovely story, huh? The second one is the one we read last week about the ten bridesmaids who were waiting for the groom. Five of them had enough oil to light their lamps until the groom came and five of them ran out. So we have stories of be prepared and don’t give up waiting and watching. Today’s story is about a master who goes on a long trip and entrusts significant amounts of money to three of his servants. Each bag of gold was worth around 15 or 20 years of earnings as a day laborer.[1] One servant gets five of these bags, so around 100 years of wages; the second servant gets two bags, which amounts to about a lifetime of earnings; the third servant gets one bag. The first two servants use what they’ve been given. They invest their gifts and get double back. The third servant buries it in the ground. Doesn’t use it. Doesn’t invest it. Doesn’t even seem to want to think about it. After a long time, the master comes back and wants to hear accounts of what happened while he was gone. The first two servants are rewarded for being faithful with their gifts; the third one is punished for being so paralyzed by fear that he didn’t use his gift at all. He played it safe.
Do you see where I’m going here? We have all been given gifts. Some a lot, some a little, the amount doesn’t matter. The servant with two bags of gold did just as well as the guy with five bags. First, you’ve got to know what you’ve been given. What are the gifts God has given to you? If you don’t know, then let’s do a spiritual gifts inventory or just have a conversation. As I asked the children earlier, what are you good at? What do you like to do? What are you passionate about? What do you get complimented on for doing well? Is there something that overlaps all those categories? Or a couple of them? What are the gifts God has given to you? What are your talents? What are your passions? If you’re completely stuck on this question, give me a call this week. Before you can do anything with the bag the Master gave you, you need to know what’s in it.
Once you know what you have, then you can move on to discernment. This is praying and asking God and listening for an answer as to what to do with those gifts. A gift of teaching doesn’t always mean you’re called to be a schoolteacher. What is God calling you to do with what he’s given you? And a related question, what is God calling you to do today? Because what God has called you to in the past may not be what he’s calling you to do today. Some gifts, some callings are only seasonal. My mom’s nursing vocation was for a lifetime. My call to Nicaragua was only for one year. Some gifts change as well. We can’t do everything we used to be able to do, but there are things we can do now that we couldn’t before. So, what are your gifts? What is God calling you to do with them? There are a million different answers to that question, but I guarantee you that “bury them and ignore them” isn’t on the list.
            So, the third thing is follow-through. Do what God is calling you to do. Use your gifts that God has given you. Don’t bury them. Don’t ignore them. Use them. Invest them. It may take some figuring out, some trial and error experimenting, and that’s okay. God isn’t looking for a 200% return like the first two servants. He’s looking for faithfulness like the first two servants. God expects us to use what we’ve been given. He’s looking for us to not be overwhelmed and paralyzed by fear. God’s looking for us to resist fear, the fear that we are too small to make a difference, the fear that we’ll fail. Resist the temptation to be jealous of what others have, or even what we used to have. Don’t let fear or resentment paralyze you into inaction. Don’t bury your gifts. Use them. In the 2002 sleeper hit movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” there’s a scene where Toula is concerned about her father’s response to her marrying someone who’s not Greek. She tells her mom and her mom basically says, don’t worry about your father. “I gave you life so you could live.” Go, live your life. Now, while Jesus said practically the same thing in John’s Gospel, “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly,”[2] I can also hear him saying, “I gave you gifts so that you could use them.”
            Now, using the gifts God has given us is risky business. You may get hurt. You may be rejected. You may fail ten times before you find a better way to use it. Thomas Edison is quoted for having found a thousand ways not to invent a lightbulb before he figured it out. You see, this parable isn’t as much about using your gifts wisely as about just plain using them. Name and move past whatever fear is holding you back and trust God will see you through it. Failure isn’t the end of the world. Imperfection isn’t the end of the world. Not being faithful, lack of integrity, choosing to play it safe by not doing anything, these things are all problems. God calls all of us to faithfulness, and faithfulness involves trust and risk and the unknown. When God called Abram back in Genesis, he asked Abram to leave his father and his home, the only home he’d ever known, and go with Sara to a land God would show him. God didn’t tell him at the beginning that he was going to Canaan. God said, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”[3] Not the land I’m showing you now. Not a land that you know. A land I’ll show you later down the road. We don’t know what the future’s going to be like exactly. We don’t know what Lisbon Church will look like. But if we’re faithful now, if we trust God will be with us along the journey, then we know that we will get there. God is leading us to a future he will show us. Later. Down the road sometime. We don’t even know what the future of our denomination is going to look like after the special General Conference called for in February 2019. But we know that if we keep the faith, which, by the way, means more than just believing ideas about Jesus but following Jesus and going where he leads and calls us to follow. If we continue to faithfully answer Jesus’ call to follow him, then we’ll get there, wherever it is God is leading us. Remember, the future’s in God’s hands. God is calling us to be faithful, to trust, to take the risk of investing our gifts. “Faithful living is not static.”[4] It’s not same ole, same ole. It’s working and investing and experimenting and learning what works and what doesn’t work.
            Sometimes we do get hurt. I mentioned that I usually find it relatively easy to connect with a child, but that is a gift that’s changed, and is different from how it used to be. When I left Nicaragua, and left my students there, and came back to the U.S. and started seminary, for most of seminary, I didn’t use that gift. And it was weird, because I couldn’t remember the names of the children at the church where I interned. And I started helping with Sunday school at the church my husband and I went to in seminary but I couldn’t remember the names of those children, either. It was like a mental block. And I didn’t recognize it until near the end of seminary. As a teacher, I had said goodbye to so many students, where I student taught in St. Louis, where I did grad work in Philly, the daycare where I worked for two summers in college, my students in North Carolina and my students in Nicaragua, that it hurt. And it hurt too much to allow myself to get attached to any more children, and it was like some automatic defense mechanism that had kicked in, until I recognized it and named it and decided that in my first appointment, I was going to make it a point to connect with kids again.
            When it comes to church life and gifts and passions from God, I’m a higher risk taker. If you have a decent, faithful idea that uses your and our gifts, let’s try it. It may not work. It may only work for a season, but you know what? It’s using our gifts, and that’s what God wants. There’s a quote from St. Irenaus from the second century that says, “The glory of God is man fully alive,” or “a living man.” God wants people who are alive, not burying their gifts, not ignoring God’s call, not playing it safe all the time, taking risks for his kingdom. And here’s the last question I’d really like you to share your thoughts on: What is God calling us to as a church? We haven’t updated our mission and vision as a church in a few years; it’s time. It’s something we’re going to work on next year. But it’s not something that can be done in one hour or one meeting. Discernment takes time. It takes prayer, which is two-way communication, us talking with God and listening to what God tells us. What is God calling us to as a church for this season? What gifts and resources do we already have that will help us get there? This isn’t so much who we want to become, but who God wants us to become. What does God want to do through Lisbon United Methodist Church? What does God want to happen here? What is God calling us to? And what does that look like? I want to hear your answers, so think about it, pray about it, and remember, faithfulness is a lot riskier than giving into fear. Yet, God will see us through. Thanks be to God.




[1] Commentaries differ on the exact number of years.
[2] John 10:10
[3] Genesis 12:1
[4] Feasting on the Word, Year A, Volume 4, p. 311

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

All In (Reprise)

23rd Sunday after Pentecost
November 12, 2017
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

There’s a curious phenomenon on ESPN that’s been going on for several years now.  The channel that originally was the “Entertainment and Sports Programming Network” and became synonymous with sports, also shows poker games.  Poker is a game, like a basketball game or a football game, but it certainly lacks the physical athleticism that we associate with sports.  Yet there must be people who watch poker on TV, because otherwise ESPN wouldn’t air so many games and tournaments.  I’ve never watched for very long, because the players are usually all covered up with hats and sunglasses so that they can’t give anything away when they bluff.  I don’t find it very interesting to watch someone stare at cards.  But I’m told that at the end of a game, when a player goes “all in,” they push their chips in to the table, take off their sunglasses, and stand up.  When they’re ready to risk it all, they do so dramatically.
This morning’s Old Testament reading comes at the end of Joshua’s life. He has led the people for as long as it was his turn to do so. Israel entered the Promised Land and settled down into houses and started farming, quite a different lifestyle from their forty years of wondering in the wilderness.  Unfortunately, they also took up some of the habits of their new neighbors and started to forget what God had taught them during those forty years when they relied on him for their daily survival.  And so Joshua gives them a reality check.  He reminds them of their history, going back to the father of Abraham, of all that God has done for them so far, how God kept them safe during tough times and delivered them.  However, now that life is settled again and easier, some of them have turned to other gods and so Joshua tells them to choose this day whom you will serve.  The people all know that the right answer is God, and so Joshua really pushes them to make sure they’re not just saying they’ll serve God but will actually do it.  He makes them promise three times.  It’s easy to give lip-service and say you’ll do something, but to follow through, to put away the false gods and to pledge their allegiance to God.  100% allegiance to God means that we give everything to God, it means that God has our undivided loyalty, it means that we go “all in.”
The first thing Joshua reminded the people was of all that God had done for them.  In seminary, this was called their “salvation history.” How God saved them time and again over the course of their history as a people. Joshua starts off with Abraham, father Abraham, and yet doesn’t talk about Abraham “as a venerable leader chosen to become a blessing for all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3), nor [Abraham] as a steadfast believer whose trust in the LORD's promises was reckoned as righteousness (Genesis 15:6), but simply as an outsider brought from Ur of the Chaldeans.”[1] Joshua starts off with Abraham’s origin story, how God “took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants,” including Isaac, and to Isaac was given Jacob and Esau.[2] All those middle verses that we skipped in the middle of that chapter, those were all Joshua retelling Israel’s history back to them, reminding them of all that God has done for them, the history of their salvation.
I expect each one of us has a similar story. How God took someone in our family, parent, grandparent, or farther up the line. How that person settled in this place, or another. Or perhaps they were a wanderer, or a traveling salesman, or a sailor. And whoever you’re thinking of, trace that lineage down to you, here, in this time and this place. What’s the story of how God brought you to live where you are today? And over the course of your life, start to name some of the different times when you know God had his hand on you, when God kept you safe, when you’d have been a goner if not for God. Consider some of the different people, whether saints or not, who formed you, who influenced you, for good or bad, and how their influence brought you to this place, to worship God here. What is your salvation history? It may involve surgeries, deployments, moves, divorce, heartbreak, heart restored again. We each have a salvation history, as does the church, God’s family. Our individual stories weave together to form part of the larger story of God saving his people, God saving his family. It is important to remember what God has done for you. When you start to forget, then you start to hold back some of those poker chips, you start to bluff, instead of giving everything to God.
The second thing Joshua reminds the people is that there are consequences for breaking the covenant with God. There are consequences if you fail. There are consequences when you go all in, and you don’t have the cards to back up your move. So remember, and keep, your promise to God. There are probably quite a few promises you’ve made to God along the way. Vows made when you were baptized, which, granted, may have been made for you, in which case, there are your confirmation vows. We make marriage vows in front of God and witnesses. We make promises when we join the church, to uphold it and participate in the ministries of the church through our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness. And every time someone is baptized or becomes a church member, we renew those membership vows.
What other promises have you made to God? I remember one I made that scared me, because I didn’t consciously make it or think it through beforehand.  I babysat a lot in high school, and one night, when I was babysitting for a new family, the power went out. The kids were already in bed and asleep. I had just been watching TV until the parents got home. When the lights went out, it was dark. The only light in the entire neighborhood was from a streetlight about three houses down the street. I had no idea where flashlights or candles were kept; I was not familiar with this house. So, I went to go check on the kids. As I went up the stairs, the thought I had, the prayer I had, was God, if you let anything happen to these kids, I will never believe in you again. And that prayer scared me, that something in me was willing to risk my faith in keeping those kids safe. Now, obviously, thankfully, the kids were just fine. I very well might not be in a pulpit today, otherwise. But I’ve never forgotten that spur of the moment yet very serious vow. It was a promise of going “all in.” And I was going to hold God to it.  
Yet, it’s not ever God who breaks a promise, is it? It’s us. That’s why Joshua is reminding the people that there are consequences when you make a promise to God and don’t keep it. Now, I will never advocate staying in a bad marriage or other unhealthy situation. My parents are divorced, my in-laws are divorced, my stepparents were each divorced before marrying my parents. I get it and this is not that sermon about when to break vows. The vows the people make at Shechem with Joshua are a covenant to serve the Lord their God. This is a promise to obey God and to not forsake him, which is to say to not abandon God, or leave him or disown him, like I threatened to do as a teenager. Yet even we who are Christians sometimes forget God, sometimes don’t trust God, sometimes believe in the myth of individualism and think we can do it all ourselves. Did you know that’s why the official Methodist line is against gambling? To gamble, to play poker or any other game for money, implies that you don’t believe that God will provide for you, that you don’t have enough, that you have to provide for yourself in some other way, like through betting. To truly “go all in” with God means you trust and depend on him. To serve God means you take care of the things he’s given you, like relationships and money and jobs and houses and time and our very selves. It means that when we get a $200 check in the mail, we don’t say, “Hey, cool beans, I’m going to use to go buy that TV I’ve had my eye on.”  But rather, we say, “Hey, thanks God, now, how do you want me to use it?”  It means that we put God first, in our homes, in our work, and try to honor him with everything we say and do.  Not deciding I’m going to do this, and then ask God to bless my action, but praying first, God, what would you have me do about this, and then doing it.  It means keeping his commandments, some of which are easier, like do not murder, than others, like don’t want what belongs to someone else.
When you give to God, do you give out of your leftovers, or after you make sure you have enough for you?  Or do you give generously, and write the check before you look at your bills?  Giving everything to God is recognizing that everything we have is not our own, we are merely the stewards, or caretakers, or what we have.  It’s on loan from God and one day he’s going to ask how we took care of it.  This church building, how well did we take care of it?  Your car, how well do you take care of it?  Your health?  Your finances?  Your family?  When you go all in, it means you don’t serve other gods first but you give your best to God, not your leftovers. It can be scary to do that, to decide what you’re going to give the church before you look at the rest of your bills.  But going all in, after they push the chips to the middle of the table, these players on ESPN then take off their sunglasses.  No more worrying about revealing their “tell.”  Nothing left to do but to trust that Lady Luck, one of those false gods, will see them through.  They stop hiding.  They face their fear that they might lose it all.  It’s a leap of faith to give it all to God, and that’s why Jesus and the angels and the prophets say so many times throughout the Bible, “Don’t be afraid!”  Do not fear!  Trust God to take care of you.
It can be hard, and that’s why, after remembering all that God has done for them and remembering that there are consequences for breaking the covenant, Joshua has the people renew their covenant with God again. Joshua says, “Choose, today, again, who you are going to serve,” whether all those false gods of wealth and security or God. Renew your vows to God. Make a conscious, intentional choice to continue to serve God. Remember that there is a cost to that choice, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “cost of discipleship,” “when Christ bids a man come, he bids him come and die.” We saw that again with the news this past week out of Sutherland Springs, Texas. It can be a risky thing to follow Christ. It can be dangerous to serve God, not just for when we fail, but for when we succeed and it costs us our life.  And yet here we are again, choosing again to continue to serve God, just like ancient Israel. Because we know that only Christ has the words of life.
In the Gospel of John, things get a little dicey in chapter 6, after Jesus has fed the thousands and walked on water, then he says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty… I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”[3] This teaching was too much for some of his followers, and John says that “many disciples turned back and no longer followed Jesus.”[4] Jesus asked Peter if he wanted to leave, too, and Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”[5] Things get dicey sometimes. Sometimes it’s hard to trust, hard to believe, hard to keep going, hard to participate in the life of our church family for one reason or another. Yet each day we continue to choose again and again to serve God, to be part of his family. “It is not enough to promise and make a covenant. We also must be watchful and keep awake,” like those bridesmaids we read about in our Gospel reading, “so that we can be ready to meet God, and in so doing, continue to choose again and again to serve God.”[6] You see, each choice is a “continuous opportunity for every faithful person in daily living”[7] to serve God, to keep your vow to him, to remember and honor what God has done for you so far and believe he will continue to watch over you in all your ways, both “your going out and your coming in, forevermore.”[8] Amen.

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Church Family

All Saints’ Sunday
November 5, 2017
Revelation 7:9-17; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12

            First of all, you should probably know that All Saints’ is my favorite holy day in the church calendar. Not Christmas, when God decided to become one of us and sent his son, Jesus; and not Easter, which is the whole reason for our Christian faith, and not Pentecost, the whole reason there is a church, but today, All Saints’ Sunday, when we look not just at the church here but at the whole church triumphant. All Saints’ Sunday may be my favorite because the church I was baptized in was called All Saints’ Episcopal Church. It may be my favorite because one of my favorite hymns as a kid was the one we just sang, “I sing a song of the saints of God.” That song has all those great concrete images of what a saint looks like: a doctor, a soldier, a shepherdess; and all the everyday places we can meet saints: at school, in the store, at church, next door. Saints are all around us, if we have but eyes to see. And keeping that in mind, and thinking of all the saints who have gone before us, knowing that we’re not the first ones trying to lead a Christian life, well, it just gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling. This day is one of those “thin places” that the Celts talked about, where the boundary between earth and heaven is especially close, and we can peek beyond the veil and dare to see and feel the whole church triumphant, the church throughout two millennia. I find comfort in knowing that others have followed Jesus before us.  There’s something reassuring in knowing that we’re not alone.  We’re not the only church struggling.  We’re not the only ones trying to figure out how to live faithfully and what that looks like for us in this place at this time.  Many, many others are doing that, both in 2017 and in the two thousand years of church history that came before us. 
In 1 John, we read, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! ...Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.”[1] We. Are. God’s. Children.  And what we will be has not yet been revealed to us, but it has been revealed to those who went before us. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s exciting. That gives me hope. What we will be, we don’t know, exactly. But our loved ones who have already entered into glory? First John says that “What we do know is this: when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” It’s like John is letting us in on a secret. We don’t know exactly what we will be. It’s not the fullness of time for us yet. But the saints who have gone before us? They have been purified and sanctified and perfected, like Jesus. Does that not give you the warm fuzzies?! 
However, we live in the meantime; we’re not there yet. What we are now are God’s children. This part we know. And we’ve talked about what it means to be children of God. When we’re baptized, we join God’s family. Being God’s children means that we’re brothers and sisters. Some churches actually call each other Brother and Sister, because we are all part of the same family. Being God’s children means that that’s how much God loves us. That warm, fuzzy feeling you usually have for your children? That’s what God has for us. Being God’s children means that we are our brother’s keepers. Just as God held Cain responsible for Abel’s well-being, we are responsible for each other. Now, we could get quite negative here and also talk about the division among God’s children, about the brokenness, about the restless wandering. And I’m reminded of Paul’s advice in Romans to “live in harmony with each other.”[2] In harmony is not always agreeing, because that would be the same. A harmony has different notes that get along, that work well together. And that is what we, God’s children, are to figure out how to do. You may have noticed in all of the Beatitudes, there’s only one where the result is that they will be called children of God, and that’s the peacemakers. “Blessed are people who make peace, for they will be called children of God.”[3] The catch here, of course, is that that’s not an easy task. It’s not easy to make peace after war, after division, after hurtful words, after conflict. Did you know that after apartheid ended in South Africa, the new government created a Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Their job was to listen to the stories of witnesses and victims of the horrible oppression of apartheid as well as to receive the testimony of the perpetrators of that violence. They had the power to grant amnesty and to make arrangements for reparation and rehabilitation as they saw fit. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was part of that commission and wrote a beautiful book about it called, “No Future Without Forgiveness.” It is holy work that peacemakers are called to and it is not work for the faint of heart. It’s work for God’s children. That’s what we are. We are already God’s children. We are called to be people who engage in the hard work, harder even than making candy, the hard work of making peace.
And yet we do it keeping our eye on the goal. The apostle Paul also wrote, “Run in such a way as to get the prize” and “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”[4] This is what we will be, not yet fully revealed, yet we know we will be like Jesus. Note there that “Jesus doesn’t save [us] so [we] can keep being like [us].”[5] Jesus saves us, smoothes our rough edges, talks us down from the edge, so that we can become like him. “This “being like him” implies something counter-cultural.”[6] “All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”[7] Purifying ourselves means rooting out what is selfish and greedy and inwardly focused and pleasing people and hurtful and false and twisted. It means we become more selfless and loving and outwardly focused and pleasing God and honest and true. It means we decrease so that God can increase. It means it’s less about our personal preferences and more about what God is calling and inviting us to do.
That passage we read from Revelation has become one of my favorite Bible verses because it offers a vision not just of what could be, but what will be: so many people that you can’t count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, all worshiping together. And it doesn’t say they’re all using the same language or the same style of worship, but they are joined together so that all their voices sound like one voice. Can you picture it? Everyone, from all different backgrounds and cultures and lifestyles, are all worshiping God together with one voice. It may sound messy to our ears, but you can be sure it’s a sweet, sweet sound in God’s ears, when God’s children figure out how to worship together, how to be church together, how to all come around one big family dinner table. That’s where we’re going. That’s where the saints who have gone before us already are.
So, in the meantime, what do we do? We keep joining God in his work of bringing his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. We keep our eyes open for glimpses of when and where that happens, times when God’s children work together even when they are different. We take advantage of opportunities that come our way to help our brother and sister. We keep our ears open to listen for God’s call and invitation, and keep our hearts open to accept that call and invitation. We continue to read and study God’s Word, to join our brothers and sisters in worship, to participate in the life of the church. You’ve probably heard somewhere along the way the mission statement of the United Methodist Church, “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” but did you know there’s a second sentence? The second sentence says that the local church is the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs. Participating in the life of the church, being an active part of God’s family is how we grow as disciples of Jesus, how we grow more like Jesus. You can’t do the Christian faith by yourself. You need the faith community, the church, the rest of the family, to learn about Christ, to learn about yourself, to purify yourself, just as Christ is pure.
And so we look for glimpses of what could be, of new creation, of God’s family being family. One place that happens is here at the big family dinner table where we all share in a meal together. Jesus invites everyone, whether you’re sure about all this or not, whether you’ve been baptized or not, whether you think you’re worthy or not. Jesus invites everyone to the family dinner table. That’s what it means to be God’s children. We know that what we will be has not yet been revealed and we claim the promise for those who have gone before us. Sometimes we even claim the promise for those who will come after us.   
An article came across my Facebook feed Friday afternoon called “Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore.”[8] It cited a study that was done a few years ago that listed the top four reasons people don’t want to go to church. The reasons are that people don’t want to be lectured, they see the church as judgmental, they see the church as hypocritical, and they see the church as irrelevant. However, this author doesn’t think that any of those reasons are the real reason why people stopping going. He thinks it’s because we’ve diluted and twisted the idea of church to the point that people don’t know what it’s supposed to be anymore. This author says, and I agree, that “The church is supposed to be the family or body of all Christians.”[9] And so for a Christian to say that the church is judgmental, hypocritical, and irrelevant is for that person to say that they are judgmental, hypocritical, and irrelevant. When we forget that we are the church, we are God’s children, we are members of this family of all Christians, past and present, when we forget that, then we tend to “see the church as an institution which [we] can either choose to support or not,” we see church as an event to attend, and we “lose the entire concept of Christianity. Jesus did not come to redeem individuals, but a people.” We are part of that people. Our loved ones who have gone before are part of that people. I have a mug from the Capital District of the North Carolina Conference that says, “Why go to church or do church when you can be the church?” Be the church. We are the church. Us, and all those who have gone before, and all those who will come after. That’s the cool thing about this family. You don’t have to raise the dead or hold a séance or pray to your ancestors to commune with them. They’re here, among us, just beyond the veil. And God willing, God helping, we’ll get there, too.




[1] 1 John 3:1a, NIV, 3:2a, NRSV
[2] Romans 12:16
[3] Matthew 5:9
[4] 1 Corinthians 9:24; Philippians 3:14
[6] Ibid.
[7] 1 John 3:3
[9] Ibid.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Legacy

Reformation Sunday
October 29, 2017
Deuteronomy 34:1-12

            Clayton Kershaw is widely considered to be the best active pitcher in Major League Baseball. He’s won three Cy Young Awards, is a seven time All-Star, has won other awards and recognitions, like the National League MVP, Gold Glove, and the Roberto Clemente Award. Kershaw’s pitched no-hitters, he’s led the majors with the lowest ERA for four years straight, he’s been a strikeout leader and a leader in the number of wins per season. If you’ve watched postseason baseball the past few years, you’ve seen Kershaw pitch. You know he’s good. Yet, it was only with starting and winning Game 1 of the World Series this past week that he was considered to have lived up to the legacy of past Dodger pitching greats like Sandy Koufax and Orel Hershiser.[1] I’m a baseball fan, by the way, in case you haven’t guessed, and I was really surprised by that commentary. I’m familiar with Kershaw, I’ve seen him pitch in the postseason and in All-Star games. I know he’s a good pitcher. And I remember when Orel Hershiser and the 1988 Dodgers won the World Series. I’ve read about Sandy Koufax, one of the great pitchers of the 1960s.  Yet to live up to the legacy of Hershiser and Koufax, he had to start a World Series game, and I found that really interesting. All of the previous great Dodger pitchers all won World Series championships. Kershaw won Game 1, but the pressure is on for him to win it all in order for him to fully live into the legacy left to him. It doesn’t seem fair, and yet that’s the history of the team he’s played for his entire career. You don’t get to choose the legacy that is handed down to you. You do have a bit more say in the legacy that you leave behind.
            Today finally finishes Moses’ story. We’ve been following him since before his birth and today we read about his death. Moses finished his task of leading God’s people to the Promised Land. You may have noticed that Moses brings them there and gets to see the Promised Land, but does not get to enter it. He dies and is buried in Moab. That’s because Moses sinned and that was the consequence for his sin. In all the years of leading God’s people, there was one time when Moses “…did not trust in [God] enough to honor [God] as holy in the sight of the Israelites.”[2] Therefore, Moses did not get to actually lead God’s people into the land, only to the border. Yet listen to the legacy Moses left behind:
“Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.”[3]
            There was never another prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew. Never since has there been anything like the signs and wonders that God sent him to do in Egypt to convince Pharaoh to let God’s people go. “No other prophet has been able to do the great and terrifying things that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.”[4] That is quite a legacy. In fact, it’s a legacy that no one would seem to able to live up to, no matter what they do. And so, if we were to keep reading, in the very next verse God calls Joshua to be the next leader. It’s a good thing we were already told that the Israelites mourned Moses for 30 days, because when the time of grieving is over, that’s it! God doesn’t pull any punches. He effectively and directly tells Joshua, “Moses is dead. Now move on!”[5] Ouch! Yet the truth is that Joshua has a different role to play than Moses did. Joshua is the next leader, but it’s at a different time in Israel’s history. They’re no longer slaves in Egypt. They’re no longer wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. They’re at the edge of the Promised Land. It’s time to go in. Moses left an amazing legacy, and Joshua isn’t going to follow it exactly because he’s not Moses and the Israelites are no longer slaves or nomads. Yet, Joshua still lives into it. Leaving a legacy “is to pass on to future generations something of great significance.”[6] Moses did that, and Joshua does not forget it or ignore it while it’s his turn to lead God’s people. Joshua listens and obeys God just like Moses did. He doesn’t do all the signs and wonders because that’s not what God called him to do. So, by some standards, no, Joshua isn’t the prophet that Moses was. Yet Joshua was just as faithful. It’s just God called him to something different because it was a different time and a different place. Things were going to look different. That’s why God told Joshua to move on. God wasn’t saying to forget Moses; God was telling Joshua “to push forward because there was a lot of work to be done and an unhealthy focus on the past would not serve His purposes.”[7] That’s the thing about legacies. They can be great, they can be inspiring, they can be encouraging, but an unhealthy focus on what’s happened in the past isn’t going to help us live life today. If all Clayton Kershaw does is watch videotapes of the ‘80’s Dodgers and the ‘60’s Dodgers, then he’s not going to get on the mound and practice and actually throw the ball to improve his pitching.
            Now, in light of the historical significance of today, let’s look at one more legacy before we move on to application. This Tuesday, October 31, 2017, marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. October 31, 1517 was the day that the Catholic priest and professor of theology, Martin Luther, nailed to the church door his 95 Theses, or list of 95 things he found to a major problem in the Catholic Church. He was not the first one to try to reform Roman Catholicism, there were people who preceded him. Nor was he trying to start a division in the church, nor did he want to leave the Catholic Church, though he was eventually excommunicated. Yet there were many who agreed with his grievances and since the Church as an institution is slow to change, some started to leave the church and start their own. The legacy of that today is all the myriad of Protestant denominations, even within our own Methodist family. However, the legacy of Martin Luther includes things like worship in our own language instead of in Latin, which Catholics only switched to with Vatican II in the 1960s. His legacy includes our singing as a congregation all together, rather than a priest chanting by himself. Luther even wrote the first hymn we sang today. The word we use sometimes for worship is ‘liturgy’. Liturgy literally means ‘the work of the people’ and Martin Luther wanted the people to do their own work, worship God themselves, pray directly to God themselves, rather than just let the priest do all the work for them. One of the key phrases you may hear is the “priesthood of all believers.” It comes from Hebrews in the Bible and basically means that every believer has a direct link to God; you don’t need another person, even a pastor, to be an intermediary between you and God. You can talk to God yourself. Finally, the biggest problem Luther called out was the one on the back of your sheet this morning, the practice of the Church saying, “If you give us enough money, then we’ll forgive your sins.” Yeah… that’s not how it works. There were problems in the Catholic Church, just as there are problems in the Church today. Luther is simply the most famous of the people who sought to reform the Church. He didn’t intend to split any more than John Wesley wanted Methodism to split from the Church of England. Luther and Wesley were addressing issues within the Church and sought to change it from within. That’s their legacy, that’s what they leave behind for us. On the 500th anniversary of the main event of the Reformation, I think it’s important to remember that. After all, it’s why we’re not all still Catholic today.
            Now, let’s talk about our legacy, your legacy. What do you plan to pass on to future generations that is of great significance? In particular, what intangibles do you want to pass on? Faithfulness? Generosity? Gratitude? Love? Forgiveness? When we get to 2018 in a couple months, what do you want to receive as the legacy of 2017? Hope? Peace? Joy? Kindness? And I’m asking about intangibles because physical things can come and go. Some of you remember the building across the road that you had inherited, that is no longer there, when the church moved to this building. Buildings change. Physical things wear out. There’s a verse in Isaiah that says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”[8] God lasts forever, he is eternal. And the fruit of his Spirit are much more lasting than anything we can make, and make for a much more enduring legacy. Those fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.[9] Against these things there is no law, and there is no wearing out. These things make for a lasting legacy. For both Moses and Martin Luther, I would pick out faithfulness. Moses was faithful to what God said and Martin Luther was faithful to God’s Word, which is also what God said. Are you known for your faithfulness? What is your legacy? What was passed on to you that’s of great significance, and what will you pass on to others?
            October is my favorite month for many reasons, including my birthday and getting to watch the World Series. Then, a few years ago, my maternal Grandma died in October. It’s kind of softened the tone of the month a bit. I inherited from her a diamond solitaire necklace. While I loved my Grandma dearly, the truth is I inherited big blue eyes from both sides of my family, and both of my Grandmas left legacies of faithfulness. Both of them had a deep faith, both of them were active in the church until they were physically unable to be. Both of them loved Jesus. When I think of legacies left to me, I think of my Grandmas. When I think of the legacy I am leaving behind for my kids, it affects what I do. My earliest memories are from around 3, 4, 5 years old. If my kids are going to remember something from now, I want it to be a memory of love, of kindness, of faithfulness, of joy. If my kids are going to remember something from now, then I have to be intentional in what I say and do. How you live matters. What you pass on matters. No one is going to be exactly like you. No one is going to take your place. But they can be faithful like you. They can be giving like you. They can be nurturing like you. What legacy are you passing on?



[2] Numbers 20:12
[3] Deuteronomy 34:10-12
[4] Deuteronomy 34:12, GNT
[5] Legacy Churches by Stephen Gray and Franklin Dumond, p. 18
[6] Ibid., 37
[7] Ibid., 19
[8] Isaiah 40:8
[9] Galatians 5:22-23a