Who Do You Trust?
2 Cor. 9: 6-11

 “Who do you trust? What do you believe about God?”

Paul had told the Corinthians that he would be sending someone for their offering for Jerusalem; in this passage, he reminded them to be prepared.  Their offering would not only care for their brothers and sisters who were being persecuted, but it would also express their thanks to God, and show that they were serious about their faith.

Their generosity would be rewarded, because, “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.”    God “is able” - God is powerful enough, mighty enough, to do something.   God “IS ABLE” – not “was able” or “has been able” in the past, or “will be able” in the future; God “is able” NOW, to impact our lives with his blessing!

When we read Paul’s letters, we should remember who Paul was. He was the Pharisee who held the coats and approved of those who stoned Stephen. He was so zealous in his persecution of the first Christians that he obtained permission from the High Priest to travel to Damascus to persecute Christians there. But on the Road to Damascus, Paul encountered the risen Christ. After that, Paul became one of the strongest voices for Christ in the early church. If anyone knew the power of God to change a person, to make a difference in lives, it was Paul!

God is able to fill this church, to take this church, and make it a center for building disciples and changing lives, right here on Big Pine. God is able to transform lives, to heal brokenness, to bless families, - through us!

God is able to provide us with blessings in abundance! But the blessings are not just ours - they are ours to share. God knows that we are blessed when we give, so, being the good and generous Father that he is, he gives us more than enough, gives us an abundance - so that we can share abundantly!

But Paul hinted at another side of the equation; he said that God responds to our giving. When we sow bountifully, we also reap bountifully.  In response to our giving, God fills us with grace, with gifts and blessings which bring joy – So that –  we may always be filled with everything that is necessary – Paul uses a whole string of superlatives to express that thought, so it is more than ordinary, more than necessary, it is greatest, fullest, at all times, everything of every sort!

God desires to give lavishly to us!  And what we receive lavishly, we are to give lavishly – we are to overflow in every good work!

But – and here is the real question: Do we really believe God is able? Do we really believe God is powerful enough to bless us? Do we really believe nothing is impossible with God? Do we trust God? 

You see, our giving is really about how much we trust God. Do we live in fear and anxiety, hoarding our resources, trusting only our wealth; or do we trust God enough to share generously with others, to use our money for the Kingdom, and for God’s work? This is a major lesson in our spiritual journey.  Until we trust God with our resources, our money, our gifts, our talents, and our time, we are not really trusting God.

I can tell you how God taught me that lesson – not too long ago, I found tax records from years ago, and I noticed how meager my giving had been!  But then a time came when I began to grow closer to God, and I could see my giving increase.  Yet even at the time when I was hearing God’s call on my life, I was not tithing.  A tithe is a portion, 10% of our income, given up front, before we spend on ourselves. In the passage B.G. read, God spoke through the prophet, Malachi, telling the people of Israel that they were robbing him by not bringing in the full tithe! But then, God said a strange thing - he said, “put me to the test”. Give the tithe, he said, and I will pour down an overwhelming blessing!

Well, God began to trouble my heart, for I surely was not bringing my full tithe. And I tried making excuses! Now, surely none of you has ever tried to bargain with God! But i did! Look at all the tuition I am going to have to pay! That should count as part of my tithe??? It is for you, after all! But, none of it worked! Frankly, bargaining with God never works very well! I always seem to lose that one!

I think God must have decided I needed a smaller lesson – and so, at about that time, there was a story in the paper about a critical need for groceries at Halifax Urban Ministries in Daytona. One of their ministries is a food pantry, much like ours. And I felt a strong leading to buy some groceries and take over there.  Normally, I would have just taken some canned goods to the bin we kept at our church;  but that day, I felt I had to go buy groceries; I spent $63 and some change, and I took the groceries down town, where a woman from our church just happened to be working in the pantry, and I learned a great deal about that ministry. I did some of my student work there later.  The really funny thing about this story, however, is that the next day a check arrived in the mail – an insurance overpayment refund or something weird like that, that I was not expecting – it was a check for $63 and some change.  It was not just a strange coincidence, it was a lesson.  God was saying, don’t give fearfully, give generously and cheerfully and I will give generously in return.  And the other part of this lesson was that it all belongs to God – all that I have is a gift from God.

I realized then, that I could trust God – I didn’t have to worry about how I would pay the tuition; it was in God’s plan. And I did begin to tithe – paying my tithe first, then paying tuition and other bills – instead of giving God the leftovers. By tithing I was saying, God, I trust you.  It is all yours anyway! And God blessed me through that time that I was in school – I was able to go to school and work – And I finished school with no student debt, and lived for most of a year with almost no income, a final semester when I took extra hours in class work and then 6 months working at my home church on a volunteer basis. God provided richly!

When we trust God, we learn to live generously! Our Scripture said “God loves a cheerful giver.” Generous living is about being a cheerful giver, and not just of our money. In a little book called The Generosity Factor, Ken Blanchard and Truett Cathy - the founder of Chick Filet - say that there are four things we give – time, talent, treasure, and touch. And they put it all together in an acronym, a little rule for generous living. You will find it on the Scripture Notes part of your bulletin.[1]

The first letter is “H”; the first thing we learn in order to live generously is that “HE owns it all.” Whatever I have is a gift from God. We are simply caretakers, managers, of the gifts he has given us. If I have time on this earth, it is a gift; if I have talents, they are gifts; any money I have is a gift.  Our very being, our ability to live and to love, to develop relationship with one another and with God, is a gift, is grace! We are tempted to think – I earned all this, I deserve it! It requires a shift in our thinking to realize that all we have is a gift! God fills us up with every blessing, abundantly meeting our needs! And, as managers of God’s gifts, we have an obligation to spread out the blessing. When we trust God to bless us, we share his blessings!

The second letter is “E”.  “Every day brings new opportunities” for us to share of our time – to serve. We can serve in our church, sharing our gifts and talents. God gave these to us to share, to build up the Body. Stewardship is also about sharing our time and our talents! And we can serve in our communities, helping others who are in need; many of you have been turning in your hours shared in serving our community – spreading out our blessing! And every day we have opportunities to give, in our church, in our community, and around the world! Did you know that our church supports missionaries all around the globe with our connectional giving, what you may have heard called our apportionments? And every day we have opportunities to love one another, to build relationships with others; that is the “touch” we have to give!

The third letter is “A”; “Action is required”. Just sitting in our easy chair is not enough. John Wesley insisted that the early Methodists go out among the poor and minister to them. A part of living generously is learning to serve others! One really positive thing that our schools have done in recent years is to encourage students in high school to earn community service hours. Serving others breaks us out of the prison of self-centeredness; opens doors to other-centeredness, to living generously!

Next is “R”, for “Remember your blessings.” Right now I want you to think of maybe 2 or 3 of your top blessings. What comes immediately to mind? Write down one blessing there in the sermon notes space on your bulletin, or in the margin. (pause) Did everyone name a blessing?

It would not be fair for me not to participate, so I will tell you all, I feel richly blessed that God allows me to serve him in this way, and to be here with you today.

OK, back to our acronym – we have “H”, “E”, “A”, “R”, and, of course – “T”!  “Thank him!” If all we have comes from God, and we are blessed in so many ways, we need to take the time to thank him!

And so – because we trust God, we live generously, and gratefully, giving of our time, our talents, our treasures, and our touch, from the HEART. When we give and serve from the heart we are blessed.

When we trust God, God is the center of our lives, God is our security! Friends, we will never find security, or peace, in our wealth!

I heard once of a child who lived with his family on Joe Kennedy’s property in Miami – his father was a caretaker there.  One morning the child found opportunity to talk to Joe, one of the richest men in the world, and as children will, he asked a question. “Don’t you have enough money?” “No”, Mr. Kennedy replied. “What would be enough?” The child asked. And after some thought the old man responded, “one more million”. 

You see, when we put our trust in money, there is never enough.  Like Ebenezer Scrooge we only grip it more tightly, close the doors and windows on our hearts, and become more miserable. Miserly and miserable sound an awful lot alike, aren’t they! After all, we can never really trust our wealth – values fall, the market changes, costs of living escalate, the dollar is devalued, the economy goes into recession – we get ill and use it up.   It is the parable Jesus told about building a house on the sand; it will not stand, but is washed away when the storm hits (Matthew 7: 24 - 27). Wealth will never give us real security; that only comes by trusting in God.

But when we live generously, when we live from the heart, when we give because we love and trust God, when we give out of our gratitude, then God blesses us – SO THAT, we can give more! When we live generously, we see our blessings as opportunities! We can abound in every good work – in service, in giving, in loving one another!

Now, you will have found a little card in your bulletins. First, let me assure you that I do not want your cards! You will not turn them in; no one but you ever needs to see them. But I want you to think about, and pray about, how you can commit to living a life of generosity, to returning to God some of his rich gift given to you. Will you commit to giving of your time, in service to the church and to the community? Will you commit to attending worship regularly? Will you commit to giving a specific amount, or a percentage on a regular basis? Will you commit to pray for the church? And, will you commit to telling someone about your church, and inviting someone? Once you have prayed about those commitments, and filled in what you are willing to do, from your heart, I want you to put these cards in your Bible, and look at them periodically.

This is a small step, but as we step forward in our commitment, we will be a joyous and generous community, as Paul was urging the people of Corinth to be many years ago!

Paul also speaks of God being able in his letter to the Ephesians - let me close with his words, “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

SCRIPTURES FOR DEVOTIONS

WEEK OF 11 - 15 - 09

Malachi 3: 8 - 10

Psalm 52: 6 - 9

2 Corinthians 9: 6 - 15

Luke 12: 15 - 21, 33

Matthew 7: 24 - 27

Ephesians 3: 20

1 Timothy 6: 17 - 19

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Stewardship: When the Dream Goes Bad
1 Timothy 6: 6 - 10

Last week we talked about how these are anxious times - about how many people are worried and fearful today. But what has happened? What happened to the American dream? You know - that idea that this is a land of opportunity, that anyone can become rich, that everyone should be richer than our parents were - we all deserve the dream, don’t we? But in the past year the dream has turned into a nightmare for many. The economy took a downturn, worse than the last “recession”, this one felt like a nose dive - hitting, as it did, at our long-term investments in stocks and in that one place we all thought was our best hedge against downturns, our property values. And people are left without jobs, homes are in foreclosure, and retirement funds have been gutted. What happened? Have our values been misplaced? Have we sought joy in our stuff, and contentment in wealth and prosperity instead of in God?

I cannot stand here and tell you that I have  all the answers -  But I will tell you that I have learned some good principles about Christian ways to get through such times, and to grow into joy and contentment. Paul said he had learned to be content, with what he had, when he had plenty and when he had nothing - he could be content because he had learned a secret. The secret was that he could do all things through Christ who gave him strength. 

We find contentment when we think about our money in a different way - Paul reminds Timothy that we brought nothing into this world and we will take nothing out - When we recognize that money is not ours at all, but a gift from God for which we are the stewards, then we can learn to be content with what we have. Yes, I am going to talk about money today, and I hope that does not make you too uncomfortable. It is probably harder for you to hear than if I were talking about your sins - but you should know that Jesus talked a lot about money, and it is closely tied to our salvation.

For some people money becomes an idol; we worship it rather than God. Jesus said “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matthew 6:24) When our lives, our dreams, and all our activities become focused on being rich, when money controls us, we are worshiping money. But for most of us today, it is not the money that is an idol, but stuff!

Are any of you big yard sale shoppers? Did you ever look at all the stuff spread out at a yard sale and wonder why someone thought they needed it in the first place? Or maybe you’ve had a yard sale and you wonder why you ever bought all that stuff! You know, I have moved several times in the past 8 years, and each time I have gotten rid of lots more stuff - how come I still have so much stuff left????

Do any of you remember the old Tennessee Ernie Ford song that went, “Saint Peter don’t you call me, cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store.” The problem is not that we own so much stuff, but that the stuff owns us! We are deep in debt, to pay for the stuff! There may not be company stores any longer, but we owe our souls to MasterCard, VISA, and Bank America!

The credit card companies, and the banks, sold us on debt - I still get ads for “pre-approved” credit cards in the mail. Even when banks have gone under for their poor loans, they are encouraging people to get deeper in debt. Our economy is fueled on consumer spending - as a people we have gotten deeper and deeper in debt! We must have everything, and have it now! And everything is never enough - we always want more. It is that need and desire for more that robs us of contentment.

John Wesley taught a simple, three-step approach to money: Earn all you can; Save all you can; and give all you can.[1] When Wesley began his ministry, the economy in England was in trouble - the large land-owners had discovered that they could make more by grazing carriage horses and sheep than they were getting from the small tenant-farmers on their land. People were kicked off the small farms by the thousands, and gathered in the cities, where there was little work to be found, and many drowned their sorrows in cheap gin. Wesley’s first ministries included feeding, education, and health care for the poor. But gradually, the Methodist societies helped people to clean themselves up, taught them to read, and helped them get jobs. Living frugally, saving all they could, the poor among the Methodists soon became a thriving middle class. In his old age, Wesley remarked that he thought the Methodists had done very well at learning the first two parts of his principles - Earn all you can, and save all you can - but they weren’t doing so well with the last one - Give all you can.

Can we apply Wesley’s principles today? Can they be supported biblically? How can they make our lives better? Those are the questions I would like to explore a bit more today. First, is earning all we can really biblical? Remember, it is not money that is the root of all evil, but the love of money! Like most things, money is simply a tool; we use it for good or for evil. We love God and our neighbor and use our money as God would have us use it, or we love ourselves and earn only to focus on ourselves. In Ephesians, 4:28, we read, “Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.” We find that same word, to work, in the second chapter of Genesis - “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden to work it and keep it.” The Ten Commandments include admonitions against stealing, and against covetousness, but about work, the Commandments say, “six days you shall work, but on the seventh rest.” Work has sort of gotten a bad rap in our culture; we spend lives thinking about retiring so we don’t have to work - the first thing someone says when they win the lottery is that they are quitting their job - but work is not a bad thing; work is another of God’s good gifts.

On the other hand, there are clear boundaries in the Bible to the ways we can earn all we can. Jeremiah warns, “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,------ who makes his neighbors work for nothing and does not give them their wages.” (Jer 22:13)

Wesley set some specific parameters on gain - we ought not to buy gold too dear, he said. We ought not to gain wealth at the cost of life or of our health, nor of our mind. To maintain a healthy mind, we must not engage in activities that are contrary to the laws of God, or of our country. And we must not engage in activities which harm the life, health, mind, or soul of our neighbor. In short, we must not sell our souls, in order to gain money, but we may gain all we can by honest industry and common sense.

In his book, Financial Peace, Dave Ramsey brings this idea of earning all we can to the modern world.[2] Find what you love doing, he advises, and then excel at what you do. I was blessed; I always loved what I did. I loved Oncology Nursing and it gave me opportunities to help people and to teach others to be really good nurses, as well as paying a good salary. And since God has called me to this work, I love it! It is wonderful to work at something you love! But, I knew a man who worked for 32 years at a job he hated. He grew bitter, sullen, and resentful. How much better off everyone in his life would have been had he found something he enjoyed doing. Don’t just go out today and quit a job you hate, Ramsey advises, but do begin to find what you would love and work at building the qualifications for doing that. Dave talks a lot about having a plan.

Secondly, Save all you can. Now, as Americans, when times are good, we do pretty well at earning wealth. But we are lousy at saving it! We spend money we don’t have, for things we don’t need, and don’t even have space to store. And it seems to me that it is not even “keeping up with the Jones’” any longer, so much as it is an attitude, somehow instilled by the advertisers, that we deserve to have whatever the Jones’ have. Or maybe we see our own self-worth in what we own? or think that others will somehow think we are less if we do not own what they do or live the life-style they do? We try to live like the rich and famous - when we are not! And trying to live a lifestyle above our means gets us into trouble. Or, as Paul so graphically put it in his warning to Timothy, “Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” (1 Tim. 6:9)

Now Wesley’s idea of saving all we can was to live very simply, and there is something we can learn from that. Paul advised Timothy, “if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.” Do we buy because we need, or because we want? Do we practice the patience it takes to save, and wait for the things we want? We have been sold on credit cards; buy now and pay later - no interest or payments until 2011! Right - and I am sure I will want to be paying on that furniture in two years, when it is starting to look a bit worn already! And if you don’t make the payments, every one of them on time? You will likely find yourself paying 20% interest, that is one-fifth of what you paid, for that full year! The furniture store has sold that loan to someone else and they are looking for a way to make a profit. Frankly, the best way for us to save all we can is to quit borrowing all we can!

In Romans 13:8, Paul advises, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.” (NIV) Folks, we will impress more people with our love than we ever will with our “stuff”! And that payment that we have been making on the credit card? We can turn around and start putting that into savings. We can save for that major purchase rather than charging it! Make a budget - put paying yourself in savings at the top of the list, right after giving.

But will saving turn us into Scrooge? Will we begin hoarding our money? That depends on our attitude towards the money - we should never think of our savings as a “Get rich quick” scheme. That is how many people get taken by the con artists. Nor should we be saving for the love of money - our savings are simply a rational way to use that money for the good of our personal growth, our family, and God’s kingdom.

And then, give all you can. Experience the blessing of giving. Yes, as B.G. has reminded us this morning, giving is a blessing! I promise you, you will feel more joy and contentment from what you give, than from the stuff you buy! If you cannot give a full tithe yet - and a biblical tithe is 10% - then begin by giving a portion, and make a plan for moving forward.

Wesley says that the whole point of our earning all we can and saving all we can, is to give all we can to God’s work. He reminds us that we are not really the owners of anything, but the stewards. God has entrusted us for a time with the goods and blessings of this world, and God is watching how we use them, and will call for an accounting.

Giving is like farming, we are planting seeds for the Kingdom when we give. Good things are set in motion by our giving - good things for God - the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, the poor are blessed, the Word is spread, the Church continues as community to bless us and as the Body of Christ to change lives and to bless those who are not yet a part of God’s family. But there are also good things that are set in motion for you - your life is changed, your spirit begins to grow, you learn generosity, you feel the contentment of loving, the joy of giving.  You turn your focus outward, learning that you are not the center of the universe. And when we focus our lives on God, rather than on ourselves, we are truly blessed! It is there that we find contentment and joy.

Would you pray with me?

Dear God, help me to be less selfish; help me to turn my heart and soul outward to you, rather than inward upon myself; give to me a generous spirit. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR DEVOTION

WEEK OF 11/8/09

Ecclesiastes 5:10b

Philippians 4: 11 - 13

1 Timothy 6: 6 - 10

Luke 12: 13 - 21

Matthew 6: 19 - 21

1 Timothy 6: 17 - 19

2 Corinthians 9: 6 - 15

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Finding a Saintly Center
1 Corinthians 1: 1 - 9

Today is Nov. 1, and it is a holiday - We celebrate All Saints Day on Nov. 1, or on the first Sunday in November. The celebration began in the fourth century, as Martyrs Day, a way to honor the unknown martyrs in the early church, sort of like we have a tomb to the unknown soldier.  Over time, it became a day to honor all the saints, and was called “All Hallows” day. In the year 837, November 1 was officially declared “All Hallows Day”; over time then, the name gradually changed to All Saints Day.

From the very beginning, the eve of this holiday was celebrated as a part of the holiday, which began, as was the Jewish custom, at sundown the day before. And the eve of “All Hallows Day” would have been, what? Halloween! Yes, Halloween is a Christian holiday -

Because it was a feast dedicated to the dead martyrs - or perhaps because medieval people were just naturally superstitious - or perhaps because some more ancient harvest festivals merged into it - it became a time when people dressed in scary costumes. But, it is a Christian holiday; like other Christian holidays we need not to reject it but to reclaim it - celebrate in a way that is fun, but not harmful to others, and on November 1, remember the saints who have gone before.

With the Protestant reformation, the word “Saints” changed its meaning, it lost its meaning of some special, holy person, and was taken in its New Testament meaning - when Paul speaks of “saints”, he is speaking of all believers. The feast of All Saints became a celebration of the unity of the entire church, a celebration of the “Communion of Saints”. Remember those words from the Apostle’s Creed? When we say we believe in the Communion of Saints, we are saying that we are joined with all Christians everywhere, in all churches and denominations, and with all Christians for all time - past, present, and future. That great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us in this world and the next.

We celebrate the Communion of Saints, as we remember those who have gone before us. On All Saints Day it is customary in Methodist churches to read the names of the saints who have gone on to the Lord during the previous year.  Since I do not know what your custom here has been in the past, we will read the names from the past two years, from 2008 and 2009.

Hear now, and remember, the names of the saints who have gone on:

Audrey Hansen

Mary Oakes

Maxine Boyd

Gladys Bigelow

and Frank Burgess, who, although he was not a member, was a part of our church family.

And now, would you pray with me:

We bless your holy name, O God,

for all your servants who, having finished their course,

now rest from their labors.

Give us grace to follow the example

of their steadfastness and faithfulness,

to your honor and glory;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 The Communion of Saints - the family of God to whom we all belong, if we believe in Jesus Christ; in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - we are all joined together, with those who have gone before us, and those who will follow us, into one family.

 My family used to gather at my parents’ house for holidays. We would load the kids in the car and drive for hours, arriving late at night. There would be lots of good food around the holiday table, but more than that, there would be the time together, and the family stories. When family comes together around the table, stories are told and repeated, stories of ancestors and those who have gone on, stories of courage, and funny stories, and just plain “remember when” stories. But when you come away from there, you have gained an understanding, you remember who you are.

In the movie, The Lion King, Simba forgot who he was, and got a bit lost for a time - one day he looked into a pool and saw the ghost of his father, Mufasa - and Mufasa's ghost said: "You have forgotten who you are and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself Simba. You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the circle of life."

But Simba replied: "How can I go back!? I'm not who I used to be!"

None of us is who we used to be - but, we can remember who we are - as Mufasa’s ghost then told Simba, "Remember who you are. You are my son and the one true king. Remember..."

In his first letter to the church, the community of believers that gathered at Corinth, Paul tells the Corinthians who they are - they are called to be saints, together with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When God calls, it is an invitation to become a part of his family, his people. The Corinthians were not called because they were perfect, but precisely because they were not. They were in need of God. And God’s call to us enables us to call on him, to find strength and power, to find our center, in him.

It was through God’s grace that the Corinthians were called, grace, Paul says, given to them in Christ Jesus. Knowing Jesus changed who they were - in Corinth there were wealthy merchants, alongside extreme poverty; they were mostly Gentiles, and they had worshiped idols, especially the goddess Artemis. But, whatever they had been, they were not what they used to be - now, they were a new people, believers in Jesus Christ, defined by God’s grace. In every way, they had been enriched in him. In God’s grace, he calls to each and every one of us to belong to him, to be a part of his family. We are called to be saints, a people sanctified, set apart for God, belonging to God.

But, how can we be saints in this day and age? For many, these are hard times. People are anxious - investments that should have carried people through the coming years have evaporated before their eyes, or scam artists and ponzy schemes have made off with them; people are afraid of what will happen tomorrow, and of what will not. We are in the midst of two wars; who knows when the economy will turn around; and crime seems only to get worse, and more horrific, as more and more people have lost their centers, their identity. - And now there is even H1, N1 to worry about! These are anxious times! How do we find our center in the midst of such times?

Of course, we are not the first to face anxious times - those earliest Christian martyrs, for whom All Saints Day was originally celebrated, had some anxious times. It was dangerous to be a Christian then. The Roman soldiers would come, and drag them before a magistrate. It was fairly easy to get off - just offer a sacrifice to the emperor as a god, and curse the name of Jesus Christ, and you could go free. Oh, and by the way, give up the names of a few others of those misguided souls who were following that atheist religion, Christianity. The Romans considered Christians atheists, because they would not worship the emperor and the Roman gods. I wonder if I would have had the courage and the faith to stand firm? to remember that I was a part of God’s family? But many of those early Christians did, and they died in the arenas, torn by wild beasts, or killed in other cruel ways, as entertainment for the crowd; and after each wave of persecution, the church would take a spurt of growth - as people would see that those who endured such pain had been God’s family. Centered in God, they knew who they were, and people wanted to be like that.

And there have been anxious times much more recently than that! My parents grew up in the Great Depression - some of you are of that generation. Daddy served in the Navy during World War 2, a war that involved every family in this country; and when I was a child polio was a much greater threat than H1N1. There were weeks in the summer when we were not allowed into any public places, including the community swimming pool. And then, I remember trying to turn my home basement into a bomb shelter, and drills when we ducked under our desks and covered our heads, as if such actions could possibly save us from an atomic bomb.

 How did people get through those anxious times? They came together as churches and as families; they prayed and worshiped God together; they helped one another and around the family table, they were told, “whatever happens, remember who you are.”

Just as Paul reminded the Corinthians of who they were, a community of believers defined by God’s grace, endowed by the Holy Spirit with speech, knowledge, and spiritual gifts to live and thrive in the anxious times in which they lived, so we are reminded. We are a family, in fellowship with Christ, bound to one another - we were called to be saints, not because we are perfect, but precisely because we are not. We are people who need God. Remembering who we are helps us to shape how we live. We have an identity - we are called Christians, after our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful - we can rely on him, whatever else happens. We have no need to be anxious - so long as our lives are shaped around him, so long as our center is in Christ. He will give us the knowledge and the gifts we need for today, the strength to face this day, and that is all we need.

We come to the table together - and as we gather at the table, we tell the story that binds us together, that makes us who we are. Let us find our center where it ought to be, outside our anxious selves, in our Lord. It is the table of Our Lord, and as we share together, let us remember his sacrifice for us; let us remember who we are. 

SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR DEVOTIONS

WEEK OF 11/01/09

Isaiah 56: 1 - 8

Matthew 7: 12 - 20

1 Corinthians 1: 1 - 9

Deuteronomy 6: 4 - 9

Deuteronomy 7: 7 - 11

1 Peter 2: 4 - 10

Colossians 3: 12 - 17

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For Thine Is The Glory
Mark 9: 33 - 35
Matthew 6: 9 - 13

Today, we will complete our study of the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer is one of those things we learn that is so significant to our faith - we have talked about how the early Christians prayed it three times a day. If you go to any Christian church, in any part of the world, you will hear this prayer - you may not understand the language, but it is unmistakable when the entire congregation bows their heads and prays together -

Let’s read again the passage from Matthew -

(Matthew 6: 9 - 13)

Wait - it’s not finished - but Jesus goes on to talk about forgiveness - at least that is what you find in most Bibles. In the NRSV and the NIV,  there is a footnote - and it says, “Other ancient authorities add, ‘For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours forever. Amen.’” You will find those words in the text of the King James Version.

translations. I thought you might find it helpful if we talked for a minute about why there are differences.

We don’t have Matthew’s original scrolls where he wrote out his gospel some 2000 years ago. What we have are copies of copies of copies - but there is not just one copy, that was copied once, and then when it was worn out copied again.  No, there were scribes and monks who spent their lives copying the letters and the scriptures, until the invention of the printing press, and so there were multiple copies. Now, some of these copies are considered more accurate than others - and where the copies differ scholars have to figure out which one is more likely to be the authentic one. The older manuscripts are generally considered more accurate - and when manuscripts from different parts of the world agree, it is considered more likely that that is the more correct wording. Another criteria the translators examine is what would most likely have been added or changed accidentally?

And that is exactly what scholars think happened here - these words were most likely not a part of what Jesus taught the disciples, not what Jesus actually said - but they are words that Jesus would have known and used. This phrase is a doxology - you know how we sing the doxology after the offering, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow”? A doxology is an expression of praise to God - and is often added to the closing of a hymn or a prayer. It is a tradition originally from the Jewish synagogue, going all the way back to King David, as we read in 1 Chronicles.

So, when the early Christians began to pray this prayer in their worship, they would have added the doxology at the end. And some scribe, copying down this scripture, would have thought, this just isn’t right that the doxology is not there - so he would have put that, maybe in a note in the margin, and then, as time went on, the note in the margin was put into the text, and the error was then copied. The writers of the King James Bible, in the 16th century, had very limited access to ancient texts - nowhere near the number that have been found and are used by translators today. The texts they used included the doxology; later translators, as they examined earlier texts, found that it was not in most of them. So - leaving out the doxology in the newer translations was not a conspiracy, but the correction of an earlier error.

So - do you think it is still important that we include these words in the prayer? The prayer begins with a focus on God, and our relationship 

to God - with the doxology, it is brought full circle, and ends with a focus on God - with praise to God. Yes, I think it important that we follow the tradition of the ancient church, and include the words of doxology to close the prayer.

Having established that - let’s look more closely at the doxology -

It begins with “for” - “for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory”.  “For” is used to show a cause. We can pray all the rest of the prayer, because the kingdom and the power and the glory all belong to God.

A kingdom is a territory or area where a king has authority and power over his subjects, and also has an obligation to protect and govern them. We are familiar with earthly kingdoms - with the boundaries, armies and pomp that are a part of them. The disciples who argued among themselves on the way to Capernaum were thinking of earthly kingdoms. They had argued over who was greater, who would have the best spot in the coming kingdom

But the kingdom of God is different - there are no boundaries to God’s kingdom - all the universe is God’s realm. God has the sovereign right to all that is. Mark tells us that Jesus opened his ministry with the words, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near.” But it is not a usual kingdom Jesus speaks of - his is a kingdom where the first is last and the last first, where the greatest of all is the servant of all, where a little child is the best example of kingdom living, where a father runs to meet his son who has messed up, and throws a party for him, where the lost are celebrated, and sinners forgiven.

In earthly kingdoms, the people fight, and die, to protect the king. The ruler of this kingdom did not ask that his subjects fight and die for him, although some have done so over the years; instead, he came to us, the Son of the King, the Prince of the Kingdom, died for his subjects.

This king has all the power. He is the Creator of all that is -- all the power, all the energy, in all that is, originated with him. He is Jehovah, YHWH, the great I AM. He could have simply forced our allegiance - but he did not. He gave us a choice; we can follow his will, or we can rebel. We owe our entire being to this King, this God, and our 

salvation to his Son, the Prince of his kingdom. His is the power!

And his is the glory - a strange word, “glory”. It means fame, acclaim, success, splendor or light. When Moses had talked with God, there was glory on his face and he covered it with a veil to keep the people from being frightened; when the shepherds in Luke’s gospel saw the angels, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, they were afraid, and they fell on their knees. It is an awesome thing to witness the glory of God!

Jesus displayed God’s glory in a way that was contrary to everything people had ever heard or believed about kings and glory - Jesus revealed the glory of God on the cross. And because he gave everything for us - God exalted him to rule over everything - “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” We fall on our knees at the bleeding feet of the king who was crucified.

“Thine be the kingdom, and the power, and the glory” - Everything that exists belongs to God - all the power, all the glory - all belongs to God.

But when we are about 2 years old, we learn another word, that rhymes with “thine” - what is it? Right - “mine”. In the nursery school we are pretty up front about it - some other kid has a toy we want and we grab it away and say, ‘mine!” But as we get older, we are more subtle - we have deeds and bank balances and titles, all of which say, “this is mine!” But it is not, really, you know. The kingdom does not belong to me - all that I have is a loan from God, a gift I am allowed to use while I am here. But someday it will belong to someone else, for I will leave this earthly kingdom and join with God in his kingdom, and I won’t need any of it anymore.

And we talk about what we have done - I did this, and I did that - but without God, we cannot do much at all. All the power belongs to him. We are powerless - AA and other 12-step programs acknowledge our powerlessness. Did you ever try to use a flashlight without batteries? You’re pretty much in the dark, aren’t you? We cannot do anything without God. But - when we really yield our will to God’s, “thy will be done”, and let him be the power behind what we do - then we can do amazing things. If we here at Big Pine United Methodist Church yield our will to God’s, and we trust in his power to do what he wills, then we will see a revival and a rebirth in this church such as 

has never been seen before. For Thine is the power!

 And so, we must give him all the glory. If wonderful things happen here, it will be because God did it - and we had best be very sure we glorify him in it! When we live as God intended, we glorify God; when we live in a way that expresses God’s love to others, we glorify God; when we follow God’s will, we glorify God.

“Forever and ever” We all know that nothing is forever - kingdoms and civilizations rise and fall - even continents, over the ages, will expand and contract and slide on the tectonic plates. But God is forever - and our only hope is in the God who is forever.

And finally, “Amen”, a fitting way to end a prayer, means simply, “So be it.”

John Wesley wrote a poem that paraphrases The Lord’s Prayer. Listen to these words that are the first and ending stanzas of his prayer:

Father of all, whose powerful voice

called forth this universal frame;

Whose mercies over all rejoice,

through endless ages still the same.

Thou, by thy Word, upholdest all;

Thy bounteous love to all is show’d;

Thou hear’st thy every creature’s call,

And fillest every mouth with good.

Thine, Lord, we are, and ours thou art;

In us be all thy goodness show’d;

Renew, enlarge, and fill our heart

with peace, and joy, and heaven, and God.

Blessing and honor, praise and love,

Co-equal, co-eternal Three,

In earth below, in heaven above,

By all thy works be paid to thee.

Thrice Holy! thine the kingdom is,

The power omnipotent is thine;

And when created nature dies,

Thy never-ceasing glories shine.

And now, as we conclude our study on The Lord’s Prayer, let’s pray it together - remembering the importance of all the words.

Amen.

Scripture Readings

for Week of 10-25-09

Mark 9: 32 - 45

1 Chronicles 29: 10 - 13

Philippians 2:4 - 11

Psalm 24

Matthew 7:21 - 23

Mark 14:53 - 65 

Daniel 7:13 - 14

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Lead Us Not Into Temptation
Matthew 6: 13a
James 1:12 – 17

We continue today our study of The Lord’s Prayer with the phrase, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” –

Perhaps you have noticed - there are several couplets in this prayer. By that I mean phrases that go together, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done” is a couplet in which the second part means  something similar to the first, and so, serves to reinforce it. Last week we studied a conditional couplet, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive”. This week, we come to another reinforcing couplet - “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Now do we think God intentionally leads us to a place where we are tempted? Maybe to see how well we can withstand it, or to build up our resistance muscles? I think the people James was writing to must have been asking that very question – for he answers quite clearly. God does not tempt us. It is we who get ourselves into spots where we are tempted, by following our own will rather than allowing God to lead us.

Let’s look more closely at this phrase. The verb means to carry or bring, or, to lead. It is subjunctive – a plea rather than a command. The plea is that we not be brought into a time of trial, testing, or temptation. Try reading with a little different emphasis,  “Lead us, not into a time of trial.” Perhaps we are saying, lead us out of the trial, or away from the temptation, or steer us clear of temptation? The thought is to be open to God’s leading.

We can get pretty lost on our own – and speaking of getting lost -  When I first went to Tallahassee, I was lost all the time. But I really outdid myself one time -  We had author Patty Sprinkle coming to present a women’s retreat and I was delighted to have an opportunity to pick her up at the airport! Now, the airport is on a road that runs in a giant arc around Tallahassee. As I exited the airport, we were already deep into conversation, and I was not paying attention. I thought I had turned right, when really I had turned left. I was traveling West on Capital Circle, thinking I was going East.  When I came to a major intersection, I turned left, thinking I was turning towards town.  Well, of course, I was going away from town! After several miles I realized that absolutely nothing looked familiar. Finally I turned on the GPS device –  I bought that thing thinking it would keep me from getting lost – but I didn’t think I needed it to get back to town from the airport! I hadn’t turned it on.  I programmed the address of the church, and the little voice in the box told me to turn right – but I did not see a road there, so I keep going. Then it told me to turn left, which seemed odd, but I did; there was a road there, but not much of one.

We passed one house, one of those places with “No Trespassing” signs and loud dogs – no place to stop and ask directions, for sure!  Pretty soon, the pavement gave out, and we were driving on a sand road. Deeper and deeper we went into woods, nothing but palmetto and pine trees, and sand road - no sign of farms or people; we did see a deer - a full-sized one, jump out and run down the road in front of us. In places there was grass growing in the road; the sand on the sides was too soft to even try turning around.

We were by then talking back to the voice in the GPS! It would say,  “turn now!” and we would say,  “Can’t you see this is not a 4-wheel drive vehicle!” I called the church by then to let them know we were going to be late for lunch; we were both laughing so hard we could hardly talk! Patty has a wonderful sense of humor!  We were really and truly lost! We decided the only thing to do was to follow the directions the GPS was giving us. Eventually, we came out on a sand road that had a number, and that led back to the main highway – the same one we had turned off earlier – but it directed us back towards Capital Circle. We had made a large circle through the woods, a nature tour!

We had made a trek through the wilderness, went through a trial – because that was the way to get us turned around and back on track. But that only happened after I had made a couple of wrong turns first!

There is a story in the Bible about wandering around in the wilderness, not because Moses was as directionally challenged as I am, but because the people took a couple of wrong turns. In Exodus, God led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, divided the Red Sea so they could walk through on dry land, and spoke to them in a voice that made Mount Sinai tremble. But no more than 40 days later, they forgot about following God and made a significant wrong turn – worshiping a golden calf.

They made another wrong turn when they came to the place where they could send spies over into the Promised Land – God was ready to lead them into the land of milk and honey, but they were afraid! The spies came back and said, there are giants in that land, and thinking they were wiser than God, they decided not to follow where God was leading. And so, the people of Israel had to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years, learning to follow. 

How often do we do that? We think we know it all – we can find our own way. We do not stop to ask for God’s guidance – until we realize we are lost! And that puts us in for a lot of wilderness wandering.

Wilderness wandering – times of trial – times of temptation and struggle.  Jesus went into the wilderness, and was tempted there, not by God, but by Satan – but Jesus allowed the Spirit to lead him through the temptation, and came from the wilderness stronger, ready to begin his life’s work.  Later in his ministry Jesus retreated to the wilderness to re-center himself in prayer; it became his place of rest and restoration.

James says we are blessed when we endure those times of trial or temptation – surely we do learn and grow in them. God uses our trials to help us. But does God intentionally lead us there? Does God sit up in heaven thinking up trials for us like it is some Survivor game show? If you can endure this challenge, make the right alignments this time, you won’t be eliminated but will make it to heaven? I think many people actually do think that – when we speak of a tough time as something God has put in our way,  that is what we are saying. Frankly, I do not believe it is God who causes us to get into trials and temptations.

 James said, God tempts no one, but we are tempted when we are lured and enticed by our own desires.

Most of the time, we get ourselves into the wilderness places; we fail to ask God to lead us, or to follow where he is leading, in the first place.  We forget to turn on our GGS - our God Guidance System. You know what that is, don’t you? That is prayer - God, lead us away from our wilderness.

We take some pretty bad wrong turns, running towards temptation rather than asking God to help us avoid it. We are lured and enticed by our own selfishness, our own desires, our human condition. We are vulnerable humans! And it is that self-centered desire that gives birth to sin. Often, we do not realize we are on the wrong road until we find ourselves in the wilderness. But what is it we are running towards?

The other day, I saw an interview with a politician who was serving prison time for bribery. He said it started with the little things - dinner with a lobbyist, a gift of appreciation when  he approved something someone wanted, little things. But then, he became dependent on the little things, and people offered bigger things.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. That politician wasn’t really evil; he did not have bad intentions - in fact he began with very good intentions. He intended to help the people - but he began to give in to the temptations; he stopped listening to God, and began running towards Evil. And Evil was having a field day.

Now that passage, “deliver us from evil” actually reads “deliver us from the evil”. The NRSV, as we read, translates it as “the evil one.” There is evil in this world - who could have lived in the twentieth century and deny the reality of evil? There has been evil at more than personal levels in our life-times; there has been evil at cosmic levels. I would bet that everyone in this room has a vivid memory of September 11, 2001; how could humans have even conceived such evil? And the worst thing of all was their claim that it was for God, or Allah. Others might remember, as World War II came to an end, how the unspeakable evil of the Nazi regimen in Germany came to light in places like Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Dachau. The holocaust was Evil at a cosmic level.

But remember this - God was present with his people, even in the midst of dreadful suffering. Cory Ten Boom wrote of how it was only with God’s presence, and God’s grace, that she survived the concentration camp, even when all her family had died. God spoke a word of hope into the bleakness of that place, and day to day, she managed to survive.

Evil does have a cosmic side. But Evil also has a personal side. Now, people have a lot of different opinions about what “The Evil One” is - is it a literal Satan? Perhaps as Dante imagined as he spoke of Satan and Hell? Or is it something that arises from within us, when we get so lost and wander far from God? Paul spoke of the “Prince of this world”, and of the “Powers of the air” and of “Principalities and powers”. What are these? Was he referring to Satan?

 What I will say, is, Satan is not God. The universe is not a dichotomy of Good versus Evil, because that would be to say that Satan is another god, equal to God. As Christians we know that God is more powerful than evil, that Christ has already defeated the powers of darkness, and God’s will eventually will be done.

But whatever Satan may be, this is for sure - he knows how to tempt us. He is seductive, whispering in our ear. He knows our weaknesses, and goes straight to our most vulnerable spots! You know, sin often starts with the little things, like the politician said. And we look at our little sins, and we think, that’s not so bad, at least I have never done thus and such, and then one thing leads to another and another, and soon we have done such and such, but it wasn’t our fault! Oh, we love to blame old Satan! We love to say, “The Devil made me do it!” But that is simply another sin, denying our responsibility for our behavior - for each small decision that leads up to the bigger one.

The thing is, sin eats us from inside; destroys us! It drags us farther and farther away from God. We need strength to resist temptation; and we need forgiveness - for we have all sinned. We have all fallen short of the glory of God.

You might read the Bible and see that it is a story of people who mess up, over and over again, people who sin - just as we all do. There are stories there of violence, rape, and incest; brothers who cheat their brothers; and sons who turn on their fathers. But it is also the story of a God who reaches into the muddle we have made, and forgives us, and picks us up and makes us whole again. You know, we cannot do that for ourselves.

We need the presence of the Spirit within us - we need God! We need to follow where God leads us, and we need to allow God to deliver us from Evil.  In Gods grace we are justified - we are made right; we can be brought back onto the right road. We can be made whole again.

As we pray now, ask God to lead you away from whatever it is that is tempting you - and to deliver you from whatever evil is dragging you down. Ask God’s forgiveness today, and give him your heart. Let us pray:

(silence)

God, in your grace you lead us, and forgive us, and love us. Change our hearts, and make us yours. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READINGS

FOR DEVOTIONS WEEK OF 10/18/09

Matthew 6: 5 - 15

James 1: 12 - 17

Exodus 32: 1 - 24

Deuteronomy 1: 19 - 40

Romans 3: 9 - 26

Ephesians 2: 1 - 10

Colossians 1: 15 - 20

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Forgive Us Our Trespasses 

Matthew 18: 21 – 35

We are continuing today with our study on The Lord’s Prayer. But there is a problem we sometimes have when we pray this prayer, a problem called mindlessness. Do you ever go from one room in your home to another and find yourself saying, “What in the world did I come in here for?” Sometimes our mind is just not with what we are doing. Or, have you ever been listening to someone talking and find that your mind has wandered off somewhere else? Not while you are listening to a sermon, of course! And sometimes we are so familiar with this prayer that we pray without thinking.

So, think about this for a moment – “Forgive us our trespasses AS we forgive those who trespass against us.” Do you really want to pray that? I want you to think for a moment – about someone who has really irritated you, someone you are really angry with, or someone who has hurt you deeply. Maybe that was someone who cut you off in traffic, or someone from work; maybe there is someone who seems to sabotage everything you try to do; or maybe it is someone in your family. You know, as an oncology nurse I saw families who were close and loving and supported one another, but I also saw families who never forgave one another, who battled even as a beloved parent neared death. Perhaps there is someone in your family who has hurt you over and over; perhaps there is someone you’ve known for a long time. Perhaps there are deep wounds in your soul from what someone has done to you.

What you are saying in this prayer is, “God, I want you to think and act and feel toward me just the same way I am going to think and act and feel toward this person. God, forgive me in just the same way I forgive ---” You fill in the blank. That is a scary place to be.  You see, forgiveness is an issue many of us wrestle with; it is not easy to forgive. Jesus knew that – he knew the deep raw wounded places in our souls, and a part of what he was doing in this prayer was teaching us that he can reach into even those places.

Peter asked, “How often must I forgive? As many as seven times?” and Jesus replied, “Not seven times, but seventy times seven.” Now Jesus was not saying to keep a tally – he was saying just keep forgiving! And he followed that up with a parable –

There was a servant who owed something like a million dollars to the king, but his business had failed and there was no way he would ever be able to repay the debt. The king planned to arrest him and all his family, and have them thrown in jail, or sold as slaves, but the man begged for mercy, and the king generously forgave him the debt. But then, even as the man left the palace, he met another servant who owed him around $100. He became angry, and grabbed the man by the throat, demanding immediate payment; and when that man begged for mercy, he ignored his cries and threw him into prison. Now, people told the king what had happened, and he was angry, and he called the man back into the palace and in his anger threw him into prison. “Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?”

In the parable the king’s forgiveness comes first, and the servant is expected to pass on that spirit of forgiveness. In the prayer, we are asking for forgiveness, as we forgive. But forgiveness is not easy. Let me tell another story:

It was a beautiful October morning in Pennsylvania as 26 children, their teacher, and 4 guests, the teacher’s family, gathered in a one-room school-house. Although the year was 2006, the children’s dress and the look of the school-room, could have gone back a hundred years, or more. Before beginning their lessons, the children prayed The Lord’s Prayer, and sang hymns together.

Meanwhile, not far away, a milk truck driver named Charles Carl Roberts walked his own two children to school, while his wife went to a prayer meeting at her church. When he returned, he gathered supplies – duct tape, plastic ties, guns, ammunition, and other supplies, dumping them all in the back of a borrowed pick-up truck. He then drove to the little school, and backed his truck into the school yard, right up to the door. Seeing the gun, the teacher ran for help, and Roberts forced the other adults, and all the boys to leave, barricading himself into the school with ten little girls.

You know this story – on that sunny day in October, in the peaceful Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, Charles Carl Roberts expressed his anger at God by killing 5 little girls, critically injuring 5 others, and finally killing himself.

As the news of the dreadful violence spread, the world was stunned. How could such violence happen in such a peaceful community? But it was what happened next that the entire world found truly shocking. There were many expressions of sympathy for the families and community affected by this tragedy; people sent money for the children’s medical care; and many people came to help. But none of that was surprising.

What surprised the world was that in the wake of the tragedy, the Amish did not speak of retribution, did not express anger. In fact, the Amish families forgave Charles Carl Roberts, and expressed grace to his family in many ways, recognizing that there were victims there as well. They attended his funeral and offered their condolences to his wife. A Roberts family member said of the presence of the Amish at the funeral, “They shook our hands and cried. They embraced Amy and the children. There were no grudges, no hard feelings, only forgiveness. It’s just hard to believe they were able to do that.” How were they able to do that?

When asked, the Amish reply was puzzled, “It’s just standard Christian forgiveness, isn’t it?” They quoted scripture – Matthew 18, which we just read; Jesus’ last words from the cross, as Luke quotes, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”; and many other passages. But primary to their faith, and central to their belief in the importance of forgiveness, is The Lord’s Prayer. The Amish believe that in order to be forgiven, they must forgive. An Amish writer has said, “forgiving and being forgiven are inseparable.”

Have you ever thought of it that way? I think Jesus knew that – we have to ask forgiveness, and we have to be able to forgive. They are two sides of the same coin, and both are necessary to life.

First, in order to ask for forgiveness, we have to recognize our own need – our humanness, brokenness, and frailty – our distance from God and our need for him. We have to look deep inside the closed rooms of our own hearts, sweep out the dust, empty the piled up trash, and open the windows – letting in the light of God’s forgiveness. Until we see our own need for God’s forgiveness, we will be too proud to forgive others. After all, perfect people don’t need forgiveness, do they? No, but who among us has reached perfection? Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”

It is only when we have seen our own imperfections, when we acknowledge that we are human, that we can forgive others for also being broken, frail humans. When we know that we are not perfect, it is a little easier to look past the other person’s transgressions and imperfections. But you may be thinking, those are the little things; she does not know what so and so did to me. I don’t, and perhaps you have every right not to forgive – the thing is, you are thinking that you must forgive someone else for their sake, but that is not the case. The person who hurt you may be dead – or long out of your life, but you still need to forgive.

You need to forgive, because that hard lump of un-forgiveness, that anger, that resentment, that hate, that is sitting in your heart is putrid, and it will destroy you. But forgiving will help you to empty out that putrid mess, will help you to open up your heart to God’s forgiveness for you. Jesus was not teaching a “tit-for-tat” lesson; you forgive first, then I will forgive. He was teaching that we must clean out our own hearts before they will have space for God.

That is not to say that forgiving is easy, or that it is quick; it is neither. Forgiveness is hard, and costly, and it is a process that takes time. And we will often start toward forgiveness and slip back and have to start over.

And there are other things that forgiveness is not. Forgiving does not mean you must let someone continue to hurt you, or that you must open yourself to abuse. Forgiving also is not forgetting. The old saying, “forgive and forget”, is not realistic. In fact, the first step to forgiveness may be recognizing and remembering the hurt. You may have to put those memories into perspective in order to move on with your life, to move on toward forgiveness. But that is not the same as going over and over the hurt, circling your mind around it like a buzzard, or scratching the scab off the wound every chance you get!  The key is acknowledging it and moving on. It will help you if you can tell the person you forgive them, but if that is not possible, find some way to say your forgiveness – write it down, write a letter, even if you never mail it, or talk to God about it in prayer.

And then, the process can come full circle – when we have recognized that we too are broken, we too are sinful, we too have at times betrayed others; when we have swept the anger out of our hearts, and made room for God, then we too can be forgiven. God, who loves us, has already made provision for our forgiveness – God, in Jesus Christ, has broken through, into our world, coming to the very places of our brokenness – coming to the violence, betrayal, and pain of the cross. Jesus wants to come into those places of our brokenness and woundedness. If we can turn to the cross of Jesus Christ, then maybe we can come on our knees and say, “I am sorry, Lord.”

We are not really very good at acknowledging our sins, or transgressions, or debts. We are much better at assigning blame, finding excuses, or saying it doesn’t matter. But God doesn’t say it doesn’t matter – God says I sent my son to take in all your brokenness, all your failures, all your imperfections – because I love you, because I want relationship with you. There are so many places where we need forgiveness, but there, in the midst of it, is God.

And now, remember that person you thought of earlier? All this week, whenever that person comes to mind, I want you to think to yourself, “now is my chance.”

Let us pray:

“Dear God, make of us a new people. Come into our broken places and bring your forgiveness. In you we can lay down our burdens. Help us to be the forgiving and reconciling hands and feet of Christ in this hurting world, today.”

Amen.

SCRIPTURES FOR DEVOTIONS

Week of 10 – 11 - 09

Matthew 18: 21 - 35

Isaiah 55: 6 - 7

Colossians 3: 12 - 14

Matthew 5: 38 - 48

Psalm 25

Matthew 6: 5 - 21

Luke 23: 26 - 43

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The Lord’s Prayer:
“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
Matthew 26: 19, 26

We have been studying the Lord’s prayer for the past couple of weeks –

The disciples came to Jesus, the master of prayer, and they said, “teach us to pray”. And Jesus said, when you pray, pray like this –

Prayer is a powerful thing; it is communicating with God. But sometimes we get it all backwards; we think it is all about us, about getting our way Communication requires listening before we talk. Do we stop to listen? The discipline of prayer is about opening us up to hear God’s Word; it is about changing us, about joining with God in doing his will. When we pray we give God our hearts; God uses the prayers of our hearts in ways we cannot understand.

When Jesus taught us to pray, he began with the phrases that pointed to God, and to our relationship with God. Calling God “Our Father” reminds us that we are in relationship with God, as his children, and that we are brothers and sisters of all God’s children; it is an intimate relationship in which God is as near as the air we breathe; and yet, lest we feel too familiar, God is still holy. Last week we talked of the Kingdom of God, and of yielding our will to God – “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done.” 

Today, we come to the first of our requests, or petitions in this prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread”. It seems most appropriate that we come to this petition on World Communion Sunday. As we see before us bread from around the world, we are reminded again of our relationship to all our brothers and sisters – who will pray this prayer with us around the world today, and will come to the table with us, to share the bread of life, all around the world.

There are over 300 references to bread in the Bible; we can almost trace the entire biblical story through bread:

• When Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, God told Adam that he would have to toil to bring food from ground which was cursed, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground.” (Genesis 3: 17 – 19)

• Remember the story of Isaac’s sons, Esau and Jacob? Esau came in from hunting one day famished, and he sold his birthright for some lentil stew and bread. (Genesis 25: 29 – 34)

• And later, there was a famine in the land, and Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy? Right – bread, or grain to make bread.  (Genesis 42: 1 – 5)

• And the descendents of Jacob were in the land of Egypt for 400 years, becoming slaves there, until God sent Moses to bring them out of Egypt. And on the night when Pharaoh finally let them go – when the angel of death passed over the homes of the Israelites – they ate a Passover meal of unleavened bread, because they were to hurry away from there, and the bread did not have time to rise. (Exodus 12:33)

• And in the wilderness, the people who had so recently been freed from slavery started getting hungry, and they thought even Egypt looked better than this! They complained to Moses, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger.” But God wanted to teach them something – that they could rely on God, even in the wilderness. God supplied bread from heaven; they called it manna, and God told Moses that they were only to gather enough for their family, for one day, that each day there would be enough. But, of course, being human, they tried to gather extra – after all, what if God did not provide manna tomorrow? What would they do? And what if their neighbor had more? How would that look? What would people think? But what happened when they tried to gather extra and store it up? They opened the jars and it was a nasty, foul-smelling mess – full of worms. Except on the Sabbath; on the day before the Sabbath they were to gather enough for two days, and it did not spoil. But every other day, they were to gather only enough to make their bread for that day, their daily bread, and God supplied the manna for the entire time they wandered in the wilderness. (Exodus 16)

• Skipping quite a few references to bread, we fast forward to Jesus – after his baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness, where he fasted for forty days – Can you imagine how hungry he must have been? And Satan came to tempt him, holding out a stone, he said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But Jesus replied, “It is written, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4: 1 – 4)

• Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he broke bread with sinners, sat at the table with the people the self-righteous would not associate with.

• And then, when he was teaching late into the day, in a remote place, he had pity on the people who had come to listen, and he told the disciples to feed them.  Imagine again, the look on the faces of the disciples, as they looked at the thousands of people gathered there, and at the five loaves and two fishes they had. But Jesus took the bread and broke it, and they passed it out among the people, and it was enough. In fact, there was so much left over that they gathered twelve baskets full. (Matthew 14: 13 – 21)

• And finally, on that last night of his life, Jesus gathered with his disciples in a little upper room, and he broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22: 14 – 20) We remember Christ in the breaking of the bread, not just in this holy celebration of Communion, but whenever we break bread together.

The image of bread in scriptures is a rich and varied one – but, what did Jesus mean with this line of the prayer – What does he mean, “Give us”? When Jesus says, “Give us”, it is an invitation to trust God with the sustenance of our lives. The people in the wilderness wanted to gather extra, by nature worrying about whether there would be enough for tomorrow. We are really good at worrying – just after this prayer, in the next part of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, Jesus talks more about trusting God; he says, “Do not worry.” 

And how does God give us our daily bread? Do we bow our heads and say this prayer and expect bread to suddenly and magically appear on our plates? Look at this bread – did you ever drive through Kansas, and see the fields of wheat growing as far as the eye could see? And the farmers working to gather the wheat with giant combines? Praying for rain in the right season, and no rain when harvest time comes? This bread started there, with the farmers growing the wheat, making a living for their families – and the wheat was trucked, by truckers, to the mill, and ground into flour, by millers, who were making a living for their families, and carried from the mill to the bakery, and so on – many people have been used by God to give us our daily bread.

Our daily bread: we are called to be God’s agents in providing the daily bread for others – it is not give me mine, but give us our. How many of us have ever truly been hungry? Have had to wonder where our next meal will come from, or how we will feed our children? Did you know that the numbers of people coming to our Food Pantry has doubled in recent months, that we are serving 20 people a day, where we once served ten; that we have 30 new people sign up each month? Did you know that 15 million children die of hunger in the world each year? Did you know that one out of every 8 children in the United States goes to bed hungry each night? When you give to the Food Pantry, or when you support UMCOR, or other world relief agencies, you are acting as God’s agent, giving someone else their daily bread. I have put information about UMCOR on the bulletin board.

One of the questions Atheists ask is, how can you believe in God when there are people starving around the world? The answer, of course, is – is there enough food available to feed the world? And today there really is; the problem is that it does not get to the people in need. That is not God’s fault, it is our fault. We are called to be God’s agents in providing others with their daily bread.

Give us this day – this day – Like the Israelites gathering manna in the desert, we always want more than we need. Jesus is teaching here that we should learn the principle of “enough”. Give us what we need, enough, to sustain us through this day. This is a prayer for contentment – to teach us to know what is enough.

Our Daily bread – The meaning of the words “Daily bread” are more than meets the eye, or the ear – the word used here for daily means something more like “essence”, that which sustains. We think from this not just of the bread that sustains our physical bodies, but of that which sustains our souls. We have needs greater than the physical. In the gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.” And a few verses later, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6: 25 – 35)

Jesus is the bread that satisfies the deepest longing of our souls, the hunger in our hearts. Who does not hunger for love? Who of us has not wondered, is there nothing more? Who of us is not broken and wounded, yearning for one who will heal our souls? Jesus is the sustenance of our souls; he nurtures us in love; we can come to him in our brokenness -- he loves us as we are.

Are you malnourished? Do you come here and feast on Sunday, and then starve your soul the rest of the week? How can you eat this bread all week? How can you feed your soul? You eat the bread of life in prayer, in reading the Bible, in helping others, in meeting in Christian community, in worshiping together. Doing these things throughout the week will provide your soul with a more nutritious diet!

Bread is a symbol, a sign – of the goodness of God, and of his promise to provide for us; a sign that we can trust him no matter what is happening in our lives; a reminder that he will take care of us daily; that we are called to be Christ to the world. That physical loaf of bread is a reminder of the one who sustains us, the one who said, “This is my body, broken for you.”

Would you turn with me now to page 13 in your hymnals as we continue with the celebration of Holy Communion.

Scripture Readings for Devotions

Week of 10/4/09

Genesis 3: 17 – 19

Exodus 12: 33

Exodus 16

Matthew 4: 1 – 4

Matthew 14: 13 – 21

Luke 22: 14 – 20

John 6: 25 - 35

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The Lord’s Prayer: "Thy Kingdom Come"
Matthew 3: 1-2, 4:17 – 23, & 6: 9 -10

“Thy Kingdom Come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

We often say these words without really thinking about them, but in thinking about them this week, I thought – it takes courage to pray this prayer! I wondered, how many of us really have the guts to pray this prayer, when we really think about it? I mean, do you really want God’s Kingdom? Are you really willing to submit to his will being done, right here on earth, just as it is in heaven, right now? Let me explain a bit.

First, let’s talk about the Kingdom of God. Isaiah talked about the coming of God’s Kingdom, a peaceable kingdom, where swords would be beaten into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks, “where nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” But there were other images of the kingdom in the Old Testament – and they were not always peaceful. The people of Israel were expecting a new kingdom, but they had in mind an earthly kingdom, with a Messiah who would sit on the throne of David, and rule over that new kingdom. He would defeat the oppressors, and restore Jerusalem to the center of a new empire.

Jesus brought the beginning of the new kingdom – reading in the synagogue, from Isaiah, he said “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21) Everywhere he went, Jesus proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God. Mark quotes Jesus, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe the good news.”

But what, really, is the kingdom of God? Jesus talked a lot about it, in fact more than he did about anything else; it is the major theme of all four gospels. He told his disciples to strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, rather than for material things. He told the Pharisees that the kingdom would be taken away from them and given to a people who would produce fruits of the kingdom. He said the kingdom is among you; he told Nicodemus that he had to be born from above, born of water and the Spirit, in order to enter the kingdom.

Jesus often spoke in parables of what the kingdom of God is like, using simple, common images – no palaces and trappings of power, no gold and silver, no armies and slaves – the images Jesus used to talk of the kingdom of God were those of the common people: sowing seeds; that tiniest of seeds, the mustard seed; a vineyard; yeast. These images did not fit with the popular image of the time, of a powerful kingdom, a new political empire to overthrow Rome. Jesus was announcing the coming of a very different kingdom!

The kingdom of God is a coming thing; in Revelation we read of a new heaven and a new earth, where Jesus, the Lamb who was slain, is the king. That is the end of the story, the happy ever after ending. That is the culmination of the kingdom – that day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! But that is not the beginning of the kingdom – that is the “not yet” of the “already” and “not yet” kingdom. The kingdom of God is a paradox – it has already begun, but has yet to be fulfilled. Jesus inaugurated the kingdom when he died on the cross and rose again – that was the beginning of the kingdom. For 2000 years, the kingdom has been passed down, not by armies and laws, but by disciples teaching other disciples, generation-to-generation, day-by-day, year-by-year. The kingdom is your inheritance; you are a prince or a princess in this kingdom that is already a present reality, a kingdom that exists here and now – wherever hope and love are shared, wherever God’s will is being done.

Daniel Kraybill, a Mennonite theologian, wrote a book called “The Upside-Down Kingdom.” Truly, the kingdom Jesus talked about was, and is, upside-down to all our notions of what kingdom means. In the kingdom of God, the first will be last, and the last first; we should enter as a little child, and the rich will have a hard time getting in; the banquet table will be filled with sinners, beggars, and tax-collectors, while the self-important and powerful go to the foot of the table; the poor are blessed, and the rich cast out; the lion lies down with the lamb and spears are beaten into pruning hooks. If we are princes and princesses of this kingdom, we are servants of all. It is a kingdom that turns our human notions of success upside-down.

The kingdom of God is not a place; it doesn’t stand on a particular piece of ground, is not a territory in the physical sense. Nor is it static and unchanging – rather it is dynamic, ever changing, ever coming and becoming, spreading and growing. The kingdom of God exists whenever God reigns; whenever and wherever men and women submit their lives to God’s authority.

The kingdom is collective – it is not where one person feels God’s presence in their hearts, no matter how strong and sincere that is – a kingdom is simply not a private thing, but a group of people, a community. Kingdom living is social – it entails relationships, obligations, boundaries, and expectations – that exceed our individual desires.

The first time I really understood the kingdom of God as a reality was when I went to Cuba. There the community of Christians worshiped together with all the passion of their hearts, cared for one another, reached out to share the good news in their community, and stood side by side against oppression in order to do so. The kingdom of God there was so solid a reality I could almost touch it. And since coming back from there, I have seen the edges of the kingdom often. I see it in people serving one another, in a church being church, making disciples for Christ. Discipleship, you see, is kingdom living.

The kingdom is social, but individuals make decisions about kingdoms. We embrace or reject them, serve or mock them, enter and leave them, pledge our allegiance to them or turn our backs on them. So – where do you stand with regard to the kingdom of God?

And how do we enter the kingdom? Unlike Narnia, there is no secret wardrobe that opens the way to this kingdom – we get in, as Jesus told Nicodemus, by being born from above, and, this is a big “and”, by doing God’s will. There is the rub; this is what makes this a courageous prayer. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” go together. We are not just saying, “Hey God, come on down and do your thing. Get rid of injustice for us; feed the hungry for us; care for the poor for us; make everybody love one another.” God’s kingdom doesn’t work that way; God will not force anyone to be a part of it, at least not yet. To pray for the coming of God’s upside-down kingdom, we have to join with God in working towards his purpose. We have to be a part of the kingdom, embrace it and serve it, and pledge not just our allegiance, but our service and our will, to its king.

Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemene, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” Jesus was willing to submit his will to God, even though he knew he would be crucified. In order to serve the kingdom of God, we must submit our will to God’s. This is the part that takes courage. It is to say, “God, I do not know what it is that you would have me do, but here I am; I am willing to serve you; I give up my will and follow yours.”

God calls us to see through kingdom eyes, to see the kingdom, and to help establish his kingdom here, in this time and place. God will never force us to do his will; he will not compel, coerce, or manipulate. He simply asks for our response.

Jesus walked by the lake, and he spoke to the fishermen, “Follow me”, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” He did not offer them a sweet deal; he did not even tell them what following him would require of them – for three years they would walk all over Galilee, never knowing where the next meal would come from, often sleeping in the open, constantly pressed by the crowds; and then, finally, he would leave them and they would be persecuted – if it had been simply an offer of a job, with those conditions, I doubt they would have accepted. On that day, those fishermen did not yet even understand what the kingdom of God was; they only knew, this man was someone they had to follow. And they left their nets and their fish, and followed him. For three years they followed, and after he left them, they became the church, and they served the kingdom for the rest of their earthly lives. It was a hard life; serving the kingdom of God is not always easy; but, do you think they ever thought they would rather still be casting nets on the sea instead of following this Jesus? I don’t think so.

You see, he called me – and I vowed that all I had, and all I was, and all I ever hoped to be was his – and it is an awesome and wonderful life that he has led me to. He changed my life, totally and completely, turned it upside-down. It has not been easy; many times it has been hard, but it is truly kingdom living, and I would never turn back. I am in ministry because it was his will to lead me there; I am here because it was his will to send me here, to serve you.

To serve the kingdom of God is to do God’s will here and now, to accept his invitation, to follow him – it is to choose God’s will over our own. We decide if we are going to try to do God’s will, making a difference in the lives of others. What would it require of us?

Take courage my friends – it requires only that we lay down our present lives, give up our own will, turn everything over to God, think first not of what I want, but of what God wants. It requires that we follow God’s will, right here on earth, as all of heaven already does. We are the servants of the kingdom, serving God by bringing his kingdom on earth, by doing his will, by feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, bringing justice to the oppressed, by building disciples, and helping one another to be disciples.

Are you ready? Are you willing to give up your own will, and submit yourself to God’s will? Have you the courage to serve the kingdom? Then pray these words after me, silently, then join me in praying them out loud.

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

(silence)

Hear us, now Lord, as we submit ourselves to your will. Join me now if you will – “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Amen.

SCRIPTURE READINGS

FOR WEEK OF 9/30/09

1. Isaiah 11: 1- 10
2. Psalm 145
3. Matthew 3:1-17
4. Matthew 4: 17 - 23
5. Luke 9: 56 - 62
6. Romans 14: 10 - 21
7. Revelation 21: 1 - 7

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The Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father”
Matthew 6: 1- 13

Let’s take a brief glimpse into the life of a woman named Kelly -----

Have you ever come to the part of the service where we pray The Lord’s Prayer, and you find that you are just repeating the words, and never thinking about what they mean? I think Kelly learned just now, to pay attention to the words – thank you Joni and B.G. for making that point for us. I am also indebted to Adam Hamilton and the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City for the drama and for some of the work he has done in his own sermon series on this topic. Over the next few weeks we are going to dig in and pay special attention to the words of the Lord’s Prayer.

This prayer has been called the most important prayer we can pray, because Jesus taught us to pray this way – right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, don’t pray like the hypocrites – the word hypocrite meant actor – so, don’t make up big fancy prayers to pray so that people will say, “Wow! That Joyce, she really knows how to pray!” And don’t pray like the Gentiles – repeating “magic” words over and over – but pray like this.

The early Christians learned three things before they could be baptized: The Apostle’s Creed; the Ten Commandments; and the Lord’s Prayer. They prayed The Lord’s Prayer three times a day. It is a powerful prayer, prayed by Christians around the world. A few years ago, I visited my daughter while she was living in Germany. We attended a Sunday morning worship service at a magnificent cathedral on the Rhine river.  The service, however, was in German. The only part of the service I understood was The Lord’s Prayer – somehow, even when we don’t recognize the language, we can hear this prayer. Today, as the sun travels from East to West around the globe, Christians in every nation pray this prayer in every language. In these words, we are connected to Christians everywhere. These are powerful words.

When we look at the structure of this prayer, we find that there are six petitions, some say seven, depending on how you divide them. The first three have to do with God and our relationship to God, and the last three with ourselves. Before we ask for our daily bread or forgiveness, we turn our hearts and minds to God.

Jesus begins the prayer by addressing God – but he does so in a very personal and intimate way, “Our Father”. Actually, Jesus uses the word “Abba” rather than the formal “Pater” – it is an informal and intimate version of “Father”, more like “Dad” or “Papa” or even, “Daddy”. Jesus reminds us that God is a personal being; he created us out of his desire to give love away, but also to have us reciprocate that love, to give love back.

My grand-daughter Morgan just turned 3; she is at an age where she will run up to her daddy, or to me, and throw her arms around our necks, and say “I wuv you!” I will tell you there is nothing quite like that! We loved her before she learned to give love back, but it surely is an awesome feeling when a child gives that love back! I think God must feel something like that when we give love back to him.

Jesus wanted us to understand that when we come to God, we come into that personal, intimate relationship like the love of our families. We have intimacy and connection with a God who loves us. To say that God is our Father is to see ourselves as loved children, worth saving and forgiving.

But notice, this is not a singular pronoun, our relation to God is as “OUR” Father. The pronouns used in this prayer are always plural. Jesus was telling us in this way that we pray together in community; we are all a part of one family. This prayer is not about just me and my faith, but about our faith. When we pray this prayer, we acknowledge that we are in community; we are brothers and sisters, all children of God. We pray together, and recognize that we are not just our brother or sister’s keeper; we are their brother or sister. We must love, and forgive, one another. That person who disagrees with us; that person whose opinions we don’t like; that person whose politics are different from ours --- when we pray this prayer, we acknowledge that they are all family; that we are all family.

I always thought that “who art in heaven” sort of made God sound distant, but it is in truth the opposite of that. The word for heaven was “oranos”, and it meant several things – it meant air, and the sky above us, and the heavenly bodies at the farthest reaches of the universe. So, when we say “Our Father, who art in heaven”, we are saying that God is as close as the air we breathe, is always with us as is the sky that arches above our heads, and is the mighty God and creator, who is over all the universe, to billions of light years distance. We see that also in the words of Psalm 139, “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.”

Jesus taught us the importance of the personal, intimate relationship with God, but he went on to keep that in balance, speaking of the holy, almighty God, “Hallowed be thy name.” As we heard in the skit, to say “Hallowed be thy name” means to consider God’s name holy. It is important to revere and venerate God, to remember that God is not only intimate and loving, but God is also holy. We must keep these two in balance. If all you have is fear of God with no sense of intimacy, then you live a rigid life following rules, and fearful of the wrath of God – you miss out on something important. But if all you think of God is his closeness, then you are in danger of missing out on something else that is important, the power and strength of the sovereign God of the universe, whom we are to respect and fear.

In the Bible, a name is everything.  When God called Abram and made a covenant with him, he changed his name to Abraham, which means father of nations; when Jacob wrestled with God, his name was changed to Israel, he who strives with God; when Simon followed Jesus, his name was changed to Peter, the rock. The new names were who they now were. The name captured the essence of the person. When Moses asked God his name, he was asking, who are you? And God’s response, the name YHWH, meant “I AM WHO I AM”. The ancient Hebrews never used that name – they considered the name of God too holy to be spoken. We speak the name of God, because Jesus has made God accessible to us, but remember, to speak of God is to speak of the source of all life, the very source of being. When we speak of God, we should treat the name with the same respect as the reputation of the one it represents. How would we choose God to be known in society today? Is God not more than an expletive?

To hallow God’s name is also to give the glory to God – as we read in Psalm 115, “Not to us, O Lord, but to thy name give glory.” There are many examples in scripture of those who took credit for what God did, and suffered as a result. When the people of Israel complained in the desert, Moses said, “I will strike the rock and bring forth water for you”, forgetting that it was God who performed that miracle, and Moses missed out on the promised land as a result, seeing it only from the mountain top. We must remember to give the glory to God, to hallow God’s name.

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Let us all pray together, repeating that phrase silently, hearing the meaning of these words.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Help us, Lord, through the coming week, to turn our hearts to you, our Father who loves us intimately; who is as near as the air we breathe, watching over us into the farthest reaches of heaven; and who is the most holy of holies – almighty God, hallowed be thy name. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READINGS

FOR WEEK OF 9/20/09

Matthew 6: 1 - 13

Romans 8: 13 - 17

Deuteronomy 6: 4 - 9

Psalm 115: 1 - 11

1 John 3: 1 - 2

Galatians 3: 26 - 29

Psalm 139: 1 - 16

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Extravagant Generosity
Exodus 35: 21 – 29 & 36: 5 – 7
Luke 12: 22 – 25, 30-31
2 Corinthians 9: 1 – 2, 6 – 11

We come to the conclusion, today, of our series on what it takes to be a Fruitful Church – one that is achieving its mission – as our mission here at Big Pine, “To BE the vibrant, active, living Body of Christ making disciples and transforming lives in the lower Keys.” We have learned that we make disciples and change lives in Passionate Worship, by welcoming others in with our Radical Hospitality, by Intentionally Discipling one another, and in our Salty Service within and outside the church. Today, we will learn how Extravagant Generosity is necessary to be a fruitful church, to change lives right here.

Now, how many of you, seeing today’s topic on the sign, breathed a sigh and thought, Oh, here we go, now she’s going to talk about money! Well, I am, but what I am going to say may surprise you! What I am going to talk about is how we are affected by generosity, as individuals in our personal faith walk, and as a church.

I remember as a child, having $5 to spend on Christmas gifts. I thought I was rich! I went to the five & dime store – do you remember those? Sort of like a dollar store today! But I took my treasure to the five and dime, and I carefully selected gifts for all my family. There was a tiny bottle of Evening in Paris cologne for my mother – remember that awful stuff? And a quarter bought a powder puff for my aunt. I cannot recall what I bought for my Daddy; he was always the hard one to buy for. And, I probably saved out a dime for a book of paper dolls for myself. But what I really remember was how much fun it was to select gifts, and to give, in a way that at least at the time, felt generous.

Do we teach our children generosity? Do we help them to know that joy? Years later, when my children were small, every Christmas and Father’s day, Daddy would say, “Don’t buy me gifts; give the gifts to the children.” Finally, one day, I took him aside and said, you know, you deprive the children of the joy of giving when you do that. He must have understood that, because he never complained about receiving gifts again. Sometimes, we teach generosity by receiving graciously of someone else’s generosity.

Giving feels good – It touches a place in our hearts; it is doing something that makes a difference.

In our scripture today, Paul is writing the church at Corinth; preparing them for an opportunity for giving. The church in Jerusalem is being persecuted, and because of that there is great need among the Christians there. Paul feels genuine love and caring for the “mother” church, and as he travels on his final missionary journey he is taking up a collection from the churches, which he is taking to Jerusalem. It is dangerous for Paul to go to Jerusalem; and soon after he arrived there, and delivered the offering, he was attacked and arrested. Only his Roman citizenship prevented his being killed.

But, back to the offering – Paul encourages the people of Corinth to give generously, from their hearts, as each of them in prayer and love has been prompted to do.  He tells them, “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Again – generosity is a joyful thing.

“The point,” Paul says, “is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” Generosity is like a seed – when we spread our gifts generously, the produce of those gifts comes back to us. We all remember Scrooge, how little joy there was in his life as he hoarded his money, becoming more and more attached to it, worshiping it. But then, how his life changed, when he learned to give extravagantly – the largest bird in the shopkeeper’s window – and in giving, he found great joy! As long as he held tightly to what he had he was miserable; in giving he found happiness, and friends.

Generosity is itself a gift – a gift of the Spirit. It is a part of our spiritual growth.

We are a materialistic culture. We value things above our relationship with God. We worship things – we have to have the latest electronics, the greatest gadgets, the newest cars, the biggest homes, the most fashionable clothes.  But folks, the bumper sticker lies – he who dies with the most toys does not win – he loses his soul. The worship of the idols of materialism only makes us want more and more, leads us into debt --- and look where that has gotten our economy today! A part of our growth in faith is to let go of our worship of idols.

We are also a selfish culture. We worship self. We value independence and “self-help”, talk about our “rights” – think we earn everything we have, and have a right to use it in any way our selfish selves want. Is that really what we want to teach our children? Selfishness? Generosity means valuing others beyond ourselves. It means recognizing that all we have comes from God, is a gift of God, and is ours to use for a time. As we grow in grace, and in faith, we learn to turn our interest outward instead of into our selves, to have an outward rather than an inward focus. We develop a generous spirit, and that is the opposite of selfishness.

To be extravagantly generous does not mean being wasteful. It means being good stewards of what God has so graciously given us. As we grow in faith, we learn to use God’s gifts wisely. Whether that gift is our health, time, talents, money, or other resources, we know that we can use it in ways that honor God, rather than ways that are harmful to ourselves and others.

As we grow in our faith, we learn to trust God. Selfishness is often rooted in fear. We are afraid that if we give generously, we will not have clothes to wear tomorrow, or food to eat tomorrow.  My mother grew up in the depression; she hoards things. She is afraid of not having enough.

But, Jesus said, life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.  Your heavenly Father knows you have need of these things – and it is his good pleasure to give them to you. The treasure you give away is stored up for you in heaven – where thieves do not steal and moth and rust do not destroy. The real question is, do we trust God’s provision enough to be generous people? Do we believe, as Paul said, that “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance?” God will always honor our giving; God will provide.

Oh, we have been taught that God helps those who help themselves – actually, that is not from the Bible, is not Christian at all; it is really, “the gods help those who help themselves,” and it originated in Greek mythology, from one of Aesop’s fables called “Hercules and the Waggoner”. It was changed to “God helps those who help themselves”, and was published by Ben Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1736. Ben Franklin, by the way, was not Christian, but a Deist.

Now obviously, there is some truth in this saying – that we cannot expect providence to provide when we do not. Even the manna in the desert had to be gathered. Work is another of God’s good gifts; our labor helps us to contribute to the needs of society. In Ephesians 4, Paul advises, “Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.” Notice, Paul is telling them that they must work, not in order to amass a personal fortune, but to have something to share.

Are you missing out on the joy of giving, because of fear? Because you do not trust God? Then pray for faith, for the opposite of fear is faith.

As individuals our spiritual growth, our turning away from idols to build relationship with God, our focus on God rather than on ourselves, and our faith and trust in God, are all shown in the fruit of generosity. People with a generous spirit give generously of what they have – time, service, skills, and caring, as well as material resources. We give back to God and to our neighbor out of love, because God has given all to us – in John 3:16 we find his extravagant generosity, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son”.

As we practice extravagant generosity within the church, we give to God’s work here. That becomes visible and tangible in the church. The food distributed by the food pantry, was the result of your generosity last week. The flowers on the altar are a generous gift; the new plantings and mulch around the church are a result of generosity, in resources, time, and labor. The Sunday School rooms that look so bright and clean this week, are a result of the generous gifts of time, labor, and materials. Many have given as they were able over the past weeks to improve the appearance of our church. Generosity shows! And because of that generosity, our hospitality is nurtured – for how can we be Radically Hospitable when our facility looks uncared for?

And as we grow spiritually, individually and as a church, we focus on the mission of the church, and we give to the church’s mission. Our mission, as a church, is financed through your generous giving to the general fund of the church. 

There is a rich history here of generosity - Many people gave generously to build this building in 1963, and to enlarge it over the years. Today, we sit on pews those who went before us purchased, and enjoy the facility they provided, through their extravagant generosity.

Fruitful congregations, those making a difference in people’s lives, thrive because of the extraordinary sharing, willing sacrifice, and joyous giving of their members, out of love of God and neighbor. They fulfill their mission in the world through the fruit of their generosity. They are not churches obsessed with survival, with keeping the doors open another week, but are churches focused on mission, on building disciples and making a difference in lives!

One way we see the fruits of our mission as a church is in lives touched and lives changed. Today we have the extraordinary privilege of seeing these fruits, as we baptize a child and welcome others into membership.

Baptism is a means of grace. It is an outward act that signifies an inward action of the Holy Spirit, our justification and rebirth in the Spirit. It is God’s action, and God’s grace, that we, as Methodists, emphasize in the Sacrament of baptism, and God’s grace is given even when we are too young to respond. Our part comes with Confirmation or with the Profession of Faith as adults. This is why we baptize children, and why we do not re-baptize adults who have been baptized elsewhere.

SCRIPTURES

FOR DEVOTIONAL READING

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

Exodus 35: 20 – 29

Exodus 36: 1 – 7

Luke 12: 13 – 21

Luke 12: 22 – 34

1 Corinthians 9: 1 – 11

Proverbs 3:9

1 Timothy 6: 18 - 19

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Salty Service
Matthew 25: 31 – 40
I Corinthians 12: 4 – 11
1 Corinthians 13: 1
Ephesians 4:12
Matthew 5:13

Over the past few weeks we have talked about what it takes to be a fruitful church. On the cover of your bulletin you will find a mission. It is our mission, here at Big Pine United Methodist Church, To BE the vibrant, active, living Body of Christ making disciples and transforming lives in the lower Keys. Being fruitful as a church is about changing lives, and changing the world in which we live!

We engage with the Spirit to change lives – never think we can do it on our own -  We engage the Spirit and draw others in through Passionate Worship in community; we invite and welcome one another and others into community, through Radical Hospitality; and we help one another grow in faith in Intentional Discipleship. Today, we will talk about the fourth practice of churches that are making a difference in people’s lives. In a fruitful church, people practice Salty Service.

Why Salty Service? In Matthew 5:13, Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.” What did he mean? Salt, in those days, was valuable. Used to preserve food, salt was necessary for life. Roman soldiers were even paid in salt; the Latin word for salt is the root of the word salary. And so, when Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth,” he was saying to his disciples, you bring life and flavor to the world when you follow me. Salty service, then, is a way of serving that brings life and flavor to our community and to the world. As we grow as disciples, our service is life giving for the church as well.

Disciples serve. We are all called to service within the Body of Christ, and each of us is uniquely equipped for service. In the passage we just read from 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about gifts. He says each one of us receives gifts, but each one receives different gifts. The gifts all come from the same Spirit, and are all used for the common good.

I have gifts of faith and mercy, but someone else in the body will have gifts of hospitality, and someone a gift of helping – all the gifts together are needed to make the body function. Now what I think is really cool, is that I have observed that the Spirit gives to people within the church the gifts that are needed by that Body. But what happens if I do not use the gift the Spirit has given me? Well, something will be left undone, or someone who does not have that gift will struggle to do it. And it will never be done as successfully as it would have if the person who had that gift and passion had used it! And so – if half the people in the Body are not serving in any way – what does that mean?

Paul goes on to say that it is like we make up a physical body – each of us is essential to the functioning of the body as a whole. An eye is not more important than an ear, or a kidney more important than a stomach; it takes all the parts working together for the body to work. And it takes all of us working together, using our gifts, for the church to function as the Body of Christ.

If you would like to learn more about your own Spiritual gifts, join us for our retreat on September 19, as we explore and discover our gifts together. And, by the way, did I tell you that when you serve using your gifts it is fun! God’s plan for us is never to make us miserable, but to give us great joy!

Which brings us back to SALTY SERVICE! Service that is flavorful and life giving is service that is done freely and with great joy. It is service given in love. Paul tells us that if we read on in 1 Corinthians, to Chapter 13. We think of that as a “wedding chapter,” but that is not at all what Paul is talking about! He is talking about the way we serve, the most excellent way – we serve in love. And when we serve one another in love, we are patient and kind, never arrogant and rude. Next time you serve in the church, this is the chapter to read before you go! When people serve with love, compassion, and joy, the community that is the church comes together.

Salty Service is contagious! Look around you at the church, and all the work that has been done here in the past few weeks. People have used their gifts to make the kitchen ship-shape; to serve in the fellowship time on Sunday mornings; to clean out and replant the flower beds; to weed and prune the courtyard; to paint and clean room 3; to repaint doors and trim; to build the sound stage in the back of the church; and others have met as Trustees and the Administrative Council to conduct the business of the church; and still others have met as the Committee on Lay Leadership and Nominations to identify our leadership for 2010. Some are working this week-end on children’s Sunday School rooms. All of this has taken different people, serving from their different gifts! As people show their love for the church and for one another in service, others step forward to join in the service.

Salty Service builds community! Someone told me last week how he had been attending here a long time but never felt a part of things. Then he came to serve on a special project, and serving with others, he built a bond. Since then, he has been an active part of the church. We get to know one another by serving together, and build the love that is a part of Christian community.

Salty Service is not just within the church. Our service must focus not just inwardly, on ourselves, but also outwardly, to the world, and the need for the Love of Christ there. We read the passage from Matthew 25. Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was naked and you gave me clothing; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.” The good people are astounded – they don’t remember doing those things for Jesus. They are just the things they always did, for anyone who was in need.

There is an old story – of a shoemaker who lived in a simple little cottage along a road in the forest. He was a devout man, and one night after saying his prayers he had a dream. In his dream Jesus said to him, “Friend, I will come visit you tomorrow.” The old shoemaker awakened early, to a terrible winter storm, but still he cleaned his little cottage; and then he put his last bit of meat in a pot on the stove, with a few vegetables, “I can at least serve my Lord a nice bowl of soup,” he thought, and he had a bit of bread; they could dine together. Perhaps the Lord would break the bread. And then he found a piece of soft, supple leather he had saved for a very special pair of shoes, and he made shoes for the Lord. He built a warm fire in the fireplace and sat down to wait for Jesus. Soon, there was a knock on the door – but when he went to open the door, there was only an old woman standing there shivering on his doorstep. He said, please come in and warm yourself by my fire. And he put the teapot on, and took out the last of his carefully hoarded tea; surely the Master would be happy to have fresh water instead – and he gave the tea to the old woman. When she had warmed herself for a time, and been refreshed by the hot tea, she went on her way. The old shoemaker sat down again to wait for Jesus, and noon passed, and the afternoon came. Finally, there was another knock on the door, but again it was not the Lord, it was only a boy, shivering in the cold. And the old shoemaker invited him in to warm himself by the fire, and the boy was hungry. The old man thought to himself; I can do without bread – I will save just a crust for the Lord to eat with his soup, and he gave the boy his bread. Then he realized the boy was barefoot. He could not ask the young lad to go out into the snow again without shoes! And so, he gave the boy the beautiful shoes he had made for the Lord, and strangely, they fit him perfectly. And so, the boy went on his way. The day was turning into evening; the old man was about to light his lamp when a third knock came at the door. There was a young woman with a baby in her arms. Sir, she said, my child is hungry and it is so cold. And so, the old man brought her in, and sat her in the special chair by the fire where he had planned for the Lord to sit. And he thought, well, there is nothing for it but to give her the soup I prepared for the Lord. And so, he gave the woman and her child each a bowl of hot soup, and the last crust of bread with it. The woman thanked him gratefully as she took her child and departed into the cold night. The day was over; the old man was terribly disappointed. He sat by the fire and wept. Lord, he asked, why did you not come? And then he heard a voice – Oh, I did come, the Lord said. I was the old lady who was warmed by your hot tea; I was the boy who walked away in shoes to keep frost-bite from his feet; and I was the mother and child who ate your soup. I was here, and you ministered to me, as you served them.

We have to learn to see Jesus in those in need, to serve in love.

You have served today, by bringing food for the food pantry – to feed a hungry Jesus when he turns up wearing the face of a homeless man who has been sleeping in the woods, or of a young mother whose children are hungry. And you served by bringing school supplies for the children’s home. Some of you help out in the Food Pantry; some of you volunteer at Habitat, and in other missions around the community. Serving in those ways is mission.

Salty service includes mission; we must be a church that reaches beyond itself – but mission is risky. It stretches us outside our comfort zones.  You know in those first hot days working in the Jamaican clinics, I thought, Joyce, what in the world have you gotten yourself into? Mission means doing something we would NOT do except for our relationship to Jesus Christ, our love for him overflowing in love for others. Perhaps you will serve in mission, and you will begin by thinking, “What have I gotten myself into?” But you will find such rewards! Mission is life changing! Christ’s love may push us to serve people who are not like us, and we may get to know them, and love them, in the process!

Mission is also risky because people do not always respond the way we want. We may help someone to get on their feet, and they may fall back down again, and again, and again. It happens. We may give to someone and learn later that they were undeserving. It happens. But, there are far more good outcomes than bad, one life changed makes up for many failures, and there are also unexpected rewards. There was a woman in the church I served in Tallahassee who told her story in worship one day; she had been in an abusive marriage. She had taken her children and traveled across the country with nothing, ending up in a shelter in Tallahassee. But people there served her and her children, and loved them. One of the groups helping was one of our UMW circles, and she met those women and was invited to church. She put her life back together, found a job, joined our church, and was using her gift of creativity on our worship team. In the mysterious economy of God, for every result one expects, there are twenty results no one ever expects!

Salty Service and Risk-taking Mission change us – as people and as a church. When we serve in love, we grow, and we are changed, by the work of the Spirit through us. And when our church becomes known for being a place where people serve together in love, our ministry will grow and spread and we will fulfill our mission, changing lives right here on Big Pine Key!

And now, Jesus invites us to share the bread of life, together.

Would you turn with me to page 13 in your hymnals, as we resume the Communion liturgy.

We are all called to serve – let us respond with Isaiah, “Here I Am, Lord”, as we sing our closing hymn.

Scripture Readings

For week of 9/6/09

Isaiah 6: 1 – 8

Matthew 25: 31 – 40

I Corinthians 12: 4 – 11

1 Corinthians 13: 1

Ephesians 4:12

Matthew 5:13

Matthew 28: 16 - 20

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Intentional Discipling:  Growing in Christ
Philippians 2:1- 5, 12 - 13

Having the mind of Christ – How do we get there?

Last week we saw how Christ’s Radical Hospitality invites and welcomes us, and how we must reflect that hospitality. Did everyone do their homework last week? Are some of you here today because someone invited you?

The week before last we talked of how God’s transforming presence in Passionate Worship opens our hearts to Christ’s pardon, love, and grace.

But the object is not just to come on Sunday, and live as people of the world the rest of the week; the object is to grow in Christ-likeness, to have the mind of Christ.  A disciple is one who follows in the footprints of the master, learning to be more like him and seeking to do his will. We grow in Christ likeness through the work of the Spirit within us, as we learn and serve together in community.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul says we should have the same mind as Christ; for it is God who works in us.  Having the same mind as Christ is to perceive things, and make choices, as Christ would – to see others and the world through the eyes of Christ. Our perceptions, how we see things, are molded by our “worldview”, our beliefs about the nature and purposes of life. It is more than a question of “is the cup half-empty or half-full”; it is more like, what is a cup, what is in the cup, and why does it matter? Our “worldview” is how we make sense of all of life around us, the narrative or story into which we weave our life story. A worldview is something we learn – from our parents, our teachers, from interactions with those around us, and from life experiences. Today, we learn a worldview from television, movies, and the internet as well.

As Methodists, we describe the process of  salvation in three parts: God seeks us out in Prevenient Grace, forgives our sins and brings us back into relationship in Justifying Grace, and empowers us to grow in Christ-likeness in Sanctifying Grace. When we accept God’s Justifying Grace, we are reborn with the Spirit within us. We are changed, but we are just beginning our growth into Christ likeness. We are like new-born babies in the faith, with a whole new story to learn. We do not just suddenly have  a worldview that reflects Christ. We develop this new way of being and of seeing the world, through Sanctifying Grace, as the Spirit works within us. The Spirit helps us learn and grow and respond to God.

We must be active participants in the process; God will not dictate what we become. He has given us free will, the ability to choose to follow him, and to grow with the Spirit. If we refuse the work of the Spirit, it gradually prompts us less and less; but, if we yield our will to God’s, and work and grow with the Spirit, then there is no limit to what God can and will do in our lives, as we begin to see the world as Christ would see it.

At the time of Pentecost, after believers received the Holy Spirit, and 3000 were added, Luke says, “they devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42) They took a time to come together in fellowship and to learn and grow together.

In Romans 12, Paul says, “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” The transformation of our minds, growing more like Christ and less like the world, takes time, time for learning and growing; it requires more than one hour a week in church. Do we spend more time in front of the television, letting it form our worldview, than we do with Scripture, prayer, learning and growing in Christian community? What is filling the minds of your children? Forming the mind of Christ requires spending time in community where we learn the faith with others. It requires study of Scriptures, receiving Holy Communion, worship in community, and the practice of works of mercy, all within a supportive community.

Last week I told you how I came back to the church. Shortly after that I heard about a medical mission to Jamaica that church was planning. I thought I would like to do that! But, it was too late to sign up; all the places were filled. Then, at the last minute, a nurse had to drop out and I took her place.

  My heart was greatly touched by the people we served in Jamaica – I remember still an elderly man who waited patiently all day just for someone to check his blood pressure; and I was touched by the community with whom I served, people working cheerfully together with limited resources, in inadequate spaces, in the heat. 

Returning home, I realized I needed to learn and grow in my faith; I was hungry for more of God, and more of the community of faith. I went regularly to worship and began attending a small group Sunday School class. Then I signed up for Disciple I. At first I was shy about discussion in Disciple, but as I delved deeper, I began to enjoy exploring with the group. I developed a discipline of turning the TV off for an hour each evening, to spend time reading and studying. Gradually, that hour lengthened, as I found the study more relaxing than TV. Over time, that group from my Disciple class became my greatest supporters.

I began to find ways to serve in the church, and serving was also exciting. When I went again to Jamaica I saw the fishermen from a nearby village going out with the sunrise in their small boats, disappearing with the waves; they reminded me of the fishermen who became the first disciples. I began to ask God, how can I be a disciple. It was from that question that my calling into ministry came. And my Disciple group was among the first to hear about it. Funny thing, they were not at all surprised. They had watched me grow and change over that year, and they were there with me as God continued to work in my life in the years to come.

I cannot stress enough the importance of Christian community to building a Christian view of the world, and of life. John Wesley said Christianity must always be a social religion. We may feel close to God when we look at the night sky, or when we stand alone on a beach at sunset, but we must then go from there to work out our salvation together, to mature in our faith.

Faith is not a pond of still water growing stagnant and moldy. Faith is a river, which runs fast in places, and slows to meandering eddies at times, but is ever moving, deepening, growing, changing, and maturing. As we mature in Christ, deepening our relationship with God through him, God cultivates in us the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal 5:22 – 23).

These spiritual qualities are not qualities we can have alone – they are radically relational; we learn them in the presence of others through the practice of love. They are honed in community, not just in reading books and studying Scripture. They become real in our lives in the love we give and receive from others and in the things we learn and teach with others.

The early Methodists were joined together in community, learning and growing together. We need a network of support, encouragement, and direction as we seek to grow as disciples, to grow more Christ-like.  The early Methodist Class Meetings, like our Bible Studies, Disciple classes, and Sunday schools, provided the means to help people remain faithful in their journey toward Christ.

Changing our lives in any area requires discipline. And we are much more likely to maintain a discipline in community. Did you ever try to diet alone? I have tried over and over; I can come up with more excuses than there are things I don’t need to eat! But if I am with a group, where I have to weigh in every week, and am encouraged by others in the group, I am much more likely to stay with the plan.

In the same way, we may want to study the Bible more deeply, but again, our good intentions lose out to our actual practice, and we fall asleep as we pretend to read. But if we know our group is going to expect us to share, and they will join us in lively discussion of the Bible, as we learn together – the study becomes fascinating. Not only are we holding one another accountable, but we are learning much more than we ever could have alone.

Other persons also help us interpret God’s word for our lives, preventing us from simply reading what we want to hear, confirming our current lifestyles, attitudes, and behaviors. We learn to think critically, to re-examine our own world-view, and through that critique, gradually begin to reform our own story around the story of Christ.

God uses Bible studies, classes, and small groups to shape us into the likeness of Christ. In small groups we not only learn from writers and thinkers through Scripture and books, we also learn from fellow travelers in our community. In the stories of others, we discover that our own questions, doubts, and failings are not so unusual, but that there are ways to learn and grow through them. We learn to shape our own story around the Christian story, to respond in Christ-likeness. We learn to seek out the Master’s footprints, and become disciples. When we mentor or teach another traveler along that road, it is called discipling them.

Now – what are we going to do about it? That is where the intentional part comes in! We must be intentional about Discipling both as a community and in our personal faith walks. As a church we must be intentional about offering opportunities for our children and our youth to learn and have fun in groups, to help them grow into their own Christian story.  Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Youth groups, and fun activities all shape their growth in Christian community.

We also offer studies for adults at different points in the faith journey.  Bible study on Tuesday mornings is helping some of us grow in our understanding of scripture. This week we are offering a New Member Orientation class. There we will discuss some of the basic beliefs of the Methodist Church. We have many folks who are active in the church, but are not members. If you are interested in becoming a member, please plan to join us on Wednesday evening. If you would like to be a member here on Big Pine, but do not want to move your membership away from your home church, you can also join as an Associate member.

As I get a bit more into the rhythm of things, we will be beginning more classes and opportunities. But I will not be able to teach everything; it is my hope that as a church, some of you will step forward to begin study groups to nurture one another in the faith. More mature Christians should be seeking opportunities to disciple others in their spiritual journey.

Your responsibility is to find an opportunity that fits where you are in your journey. Be INTENTIONAL about growing in your faith, in community! Find the foot-prints of the Master, and walk with him, growing more and more in Christ-likeness!

This week, I again challenge you – you received a small card when you came in. If anyone does not have one, please raise your hand and someone will bring you one now.

On one side the card says, “In response to God’s loving invitation I”, __and you fill in your name there ---- “am a follower of Jesus Christ and committed to:

·        Being in community with other disciples

·        Becoming more like Jesus, and

·        Joining him on mission in the world.”

The small print below that asks you to prayerfully reflect on the five questions on the other side of the card. You will see that we have reflected some on the third question with today’s message. Keep that card on you, or in a visible place, where you will be reminded daily.

Please pray with me:

Dear God, help us to grow as Disciples; help us to be intentional about learning and growing together. Guide our study and our growth, engage with us in passionate worship, and continue to help us to be radically hospitable. Amen.

Scripture Readings

For Devotions

Week of 8/30/09

Psalm 1

Proverbs 1: 2 – 7

Acts 11: 19 – 26

Philippians 2: 1 – 13

Romans 5: 1 – 11

Romans 12: 1 – 8

Galatians 5: 9 - 23

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Radical Hospitality
Hebrews 13: 1- 2
Luke 10: 38 – 42
1 Peter 4:9

In the words of an old spiritual, “I am a poor wayfaring stranger, traveling through this world of woe. There is no sickness, toil or danger, in that bright world to which I go.” We are all strangers in some way – but how we treat one another as strangers is the basis of hospitality. In our series on the five practices of fruitful churches, we come today to Radical Hospitality.

The Bible has many references to hospitality.  In Hebrews, we read, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers”. The Greek word for hospitality comes from two Greek words: – from philo, you know that one – like in Philadelphia – meaning brotherly love; and xenia, meaning stranger. So the root of hospitality is love of the stranger.  Note the Scripture of Hebrews says first to love one another, AND, not to neglect to show hospitality to strangers – for by doing so, some have entertained angels unawares.

But we can get so mixed up about what hospitality means! When we think of hospitality as “entertaining” we miss the idea – our notions of entertaining often include a reciprocal arrangement – returning invitation for invitation. True hospitality does not focus on obligation, but on the free and loving gift; not on reciprocity, and what we may get back, but on what we may give, not on the perfect presentation, but on the love in it. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up on being Martha Stewart, having everything perfect, we forget the essential piece, the love of the one we invite in.

We have read this morning a biblical example of that – the story of Mary and Martha. Jesus came to their home, and Martha was scrambling! What would you do if Jesus was coming to your home? There was dinner to prepare, arrangements to make, the table to be set – so much to do! And where in the world was her sister, who should be helping? She was sitting at Jesus’ feet! Sitting! Now, if I were Martha, I would probably have been a little annoyed! And Martha was – so much so that she complained to Jesus! -- complained about family matters to her honored guest – and asked him to intervene! She forgot that her first responsibility was to her guest! She had become so anxious about doing things perfectly that she forgot the guest! Jesus corrected her, so very gently, saying “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” It was not wrong of Martha to serve; it was wrong that Martha lost sight of the one essential thing, the love of Jesus, in her worry and distraction over many things. True hospitality may not be perfect, but it is always warm and loving.

I remember a friend I visited as a child; her mother had a living room with a white sofa, and at Christmas she had a huge Christmas tree in that room that was all white, with red ornaments. But no one was allowed in that room; it was for “special company”, which did not include children, or my friend’s father, who stayed in the den! I felt awkward and out of place anywhere in that house, and much preferred for that friend to come to my house.

But there were other places, where I felt less a stranger, more like family – I had relatives who were poor, in material ways, who lived out in the country, but when I visited, I was asked to pull up a chair at the kitchen table and join the family meal, often a delicious meal of fresh vegetables from the garden and home-made biscuits, with a blackberry cobbler for dessert – it would feel like a feast, because it was presented with love, and you could feel the love all around the table.

We at Big Pine United Methodist Church took a week last month to invite children in. Carolyn and all those great volunteers worked very hard to make the children feel welcome and at home here. And they never lost sight of the most important ingredient of hospitality; they loved the children. By the end of the week, even those who came as strangers had become friends.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story of judgment day – Jesus says, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” The righteous are astonished, and ask when they did these things for him, and Jesus responds, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did for me.” The righteous do not remember when Jesus was a stranger, and they invited him in – it is simply what they always did, for every stranger, and they did it out of love.

Love is the essential ingredient of hospitality. And that love begins in each one of us. In order to be hospitable, we must first experience God’s hospitality. We are the strangers, wandering in need of God, until God finds us, and invites us in.  It is in gratitude that we extend that love to others, who are themselves strangers.

Jesus, too, was a stranger – when He lived among us.  The very Son of God, he was born in a stable, left out in the cold. And in his ministry, Jesus had no home of his own, but traveled about, and stayed where he was invited – he said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus was homeless, the poor, wayfaring stranger from Nazareth. When we can see Jesus this way, we understand better how it is him we feed or clothe or invite in when we show hospitality to our neighbor, or to the stranger.

Yet, Jesus always invited people in; wherever he was, he became the host. It was ancient ritual that the host broke bread before a meal was served. Jesus broke bread for the multitude on the mountainside, and for the disciples in the Upper Room. And it was in the breaking of bread that Jesus was recognized at Emmaus. The stranger became the host, and gave of himself in love. Our hospitality emerges from an ongoing relationship with the most generous Host of all. Jesus gave his all, for us. God wants us to experience his love, and to give it away.

Hospitality is seeing the stranger through the eyes of Jesus, and seeing Jesus in the stranger. Sometimes that is easy – sometimes it is hard.  One part of my student experience was working with the homeless at the Halifax Urban Ministries office in Daytona Beach. Like Martha, I had always been a doer. But in this setting, I could do only one thing; I could sit and listen to the people who came. I had no money to give them or services to offer; all I could do was listen. And yet, they came, and they talked, and told me their stories – heartbreaking stories. And I learned there was nothing more important than looking people in the eye and treating them with respect, hearing them. Do you know that the thing homeless people fear more than death is being invisible? How often do I walk past them and avert my eyes and ignore them? We cannot love a stranger we do not see; we cannot see Jesus in someone we will not look at!

As we grow in Christ, we become better able to see Jesus in other people. When we serve others, we see him in their faces; when we are served, we see his love in the service. A real key to biblical hospitality is seeing Jesus in others, and being Jesus to them.

But – why RADICAL hospitality? What does that mean? Radical hospitality is rooted in the life of Christ, living as a community that lives Christ’s love, not just for one another, but for those who are yet outside the community. A church is a strange sort of institution; it exists, not for the benefit of those inside, but that those outside might be brought in.  The passage in Hebrews begins with loving one another, but moves on to loving the stranger. As Christian Community we must be open, focus not on ourselves, but on others – not inward but outward.

When a church becomes closed – inwardly focused on our own needs and preferences, visitors feel like outsiders rather than guests. In one of my classes we were assigned to visit other churches and assess their hospitality. One of my classmates, wearing a conservative dark suit, with a skirt well below her knees, went to visit another church. The usher led her to a seat, then returned with a large white sheet, which he proceeded to lay over her lap. She was embarrassed and humiliated. She had no idea that there was a “dress code” which included ankle-length skirts! You can bet she never went back!

But the ways we demonstrate a closed system can be much more subtle than that! I visited churches where no one spoke to me, or where I could not find my way around. There are also ways we can be more open – opening our doors, our minds, and our hearts! In how many ways can you welcome our visitors today? Is there anyone here you do not know? Have you introduced yourself? Have you invited them to fellowship?

As a church, we are called into existence by God. We are the Body of Christ; called to be Christ to the world, to share Christ’s love with the world. The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We can only transform the world by living in it, interacting with it, and practicing radical hospitality to our neighbors.

Radical hospitality begins with prayer – for one another, for our neighbors, and for the stranger. We practice the gracious love of Christ first in prayer.

Radical hospitality expresses God’s invitation to others. How did you come into the church? I went back to church because the chaplain I worked with at the hospital invited me. I went back again and again because one lady took me by the hand, week after week, and said, let’s go over to the hall and have some coffee. Gerry made it her business to make sure I met people and became a part of things. Because of her, I was re-engrafted into the Body of Christ.

Radical hospitality begins with prayer, and extends into invitation – each of us must invite others into our community. If you discover a great new restaurant, or you hear that your favorite shop is having a sale, you tell everyone about it! Do you tell them about your church? Someone mentioned last week that she had told her friends about a great dog-sitter; now so many people are using her services that she can’t get her to sit her dog! I said, tell those people what a great church we have!  We invite people to come to church because we have a great church we want to share with our friends, our co-workers, even those we have just met. We invite them because God’s love in our hearts extends to our neighbor, and caring about our neighbors, we want them to share in our great church.

And Radical Hospitality is welcoming; it is essentially, hospitable. Welcoming means many things. The first thing people see is the exterior of the church; it invites them in if it is lovely and looks cared for. If you are expecting important company, you will clean your house before they come. We tell people they are important to us by having a clean, well-kept, beautiful facility that feels friendly. So a piece of welcoming is looking at our facility and sharing the tasks to clean up and keep it well-maintained. And welcoming is opening a door, saying hello, giving directions, inviting people to fellowship, and inviting them to church! Welcoming is not something “they should” do, not a “they ought”. It is a responsibility of each one of us – to show God’s love.

Radical Hospitality happens when everyone offers the absolute utmost of themselves – their creativity, their abilities, and their energy, to offer the gracious invitation and reception of Christ to others. When we practice radical hospitality, the guest will be surprised by the glimpse of God’s love they find in us, and we will see Jesus in them.

I have an assignment for you today. During the coming week, I am asking each one of you to extend an invitation to one person to come to church next Sunday. Say you will be happy to pick them up, so they don’t have to feel like a stranger.

Please pray with me:

Dear God, help us to love one another, and to love our neighbor, both the familiar neighbor and the stranger; help us to remember you as the poor stranger from Nazareth, and to remember that we ourselves are strangers journeying through this world. Help us to be your hands and feet in this world, and to invite others and welcome them with RADICAL HOSPITALITY. Amen.

SCRIPTURE

FOR DEVOTIONAL READINGS

WEEK OF 8-23-09

Psalm 23

Hebrews 13:2

1 Peter 4:9

Luke 10: 38 – 42

Acts 16: 25 – 34

Romans 13: 8 - 10

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Passionate Worship
Mark 12: 28 – 31
Colossians 3: 12 – 17

We talked last week about what it is to BE a church. Bishop Robert Schnase has described five practices of fruitful congregations, those that are effective in their communities; those practices are what the Church now calls The Methodist Way. Today we will explore more deeply one aspect of being a fruitful church – Passionate Worship. Worship is, essentially, to encounter God in a covenant relationship.

In the beginning, there was God – and God created human beings in his own image, and he walked with them in the garden in the cool of the evening. Yet, we soon sought to be gods ourselves, and marred the image of God within us. Still, there is that yearning within us to return to relationship with God, to be restored to his image. And so, since time began, humans have sought God, and have worshiped in some way. Ancient peoples sought gods they could touch and see, creating images of stone, clay, bronze, or gold that they could control, and keep always with them. For them, worship was a ritual that controlled the gods, kept order in the universe.

And yet, we should have known that God was greater than that – for even the ancient people could see his handiwork in the creation all around them. God reveals himself to us in the beauty of his creation. And yet, how can we possibly know the God of creation, a God who is himself unknowable?

One way we know God is by God’s revelation of himself in the scriptures. From our reading in Acts, we saw that one of the things those first Christians did was to study the scriptures. We read in Colossians Paul’s advice to “let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” A part of worship is to get to know God better by studying the scriptures.

There we read of how God spoke to a man named Abram, and made a covenant with him, a promise to him, that he would be blessed. God took Abram outside on a starry night, and told him to look up at the heavens, that his descendents would number more than the stars. But he was blessed not for himself, and not even for his descendents, but as a blessing to all nations. He was blessed to be a blessing! 

I know that I have been blessed – I look at all the beauty in this world, and I see God’s blessing all around me. I stand here before you, and I am blessed to have God’s calling on my life. In what ways have you been blessed? Has God blessed you with gifts of a family, loved ones, community? Has God given you gifts and talents, love, wisdom, or material goods? Were you blessed in order to be a blessing to others? We were blessed by being restored to relationship with God, a covenant relationship, through Jesus Christ. We were blessed with relationship so that we might be a blessing to others – so that others might also come into relationship with God.

This world, God’s world, is a hurting and broken world; there is decay and corruption everywhere. And yet, in worship, we are reminded of the hope, joy, grace, and love that comes from God; we get a new perspective – so that we might take it with us into the world.

But, I said we were talking about “Passionate Worship”; does it surprise you a little to hear the word “passionate” associated with worship? Passion is intense feeling, strong desire, an ardent spirit, and a sense of great importance.

I remember my first love; yes, I can remember that long ago! When you first fall in love, you can think of nothing other than your love, you long to be in his, or her, presence all the time, just being near your beloved is the most important thing in the world. There was a song from My Fair Lady, where the young hero asked:

Are there lilac trees in the heart of town?
Can you hear a lark in any other part of town?
Does enchantment pour out of every door?
No, it's just on the street where you live
And oh, the towering feeling just to know somehow you are near
The overpowering feeling that any second you may suddenly appear

That is passion! But do we come to worship with that kind of passion for God? Do we come with the overpowering feeling that any second God may suddenly appear? Passionate worship is worship that expresses our love for God. Jesus said the first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. In passionate worship we show our love for God; we encounter the living God, and in his unconditional love, we are renewed, and restored, strengthened for our time out in the world.

But what is passionate worship? Is it praise? ---- or is it silence? Scripture calls us to praise God – the Psalm we read this morning urged us to praise God in music! We read a few weeks ago about King David, dancing before the Ark of the Covenant, as it was brought into Jerusalem. And in Paul’s words to the Colossians, we read that with gratitude in our hearts we should sing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. Scripture certainly calls us to praise God! And praise is worship!

But scripture also calls us to reverence and awe; Moses heard God speaking from the burning bush, and God said, take off your shoes, for you are on Holy Ground.

There is another story of an encounter with God. We read this story in the book of 1 Kings. King Ahab had married an evil woman, Jezebel, and she had turned the people of Israel to worship of Baal. The prophet Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal – meet me on the mountain and we will see whose God is the living God! My God is bigger than your God! And so, 400 prophets of Baal came to the mountain, and there was Elijah, all alone – pretty bad odds, you would think! But Elijah said, you go first – cut up your bull and put it on the altar and call for your god Baal to light the fire and take the offering. And the prophets of Baal did just that – but Baal did not light the fire – and so they prayed more vigorously, and they performed special rites, and they danced and writhed and cut themselves to add their blood to the offering – still Baal did not light the fire. And Elijah mocked them, saying pray louder, perhaps Baal is on vacation, perhaps he cannot hear you.

And then it was Elijah’s turn – and Elijah built an altar of stones, and he laid wood on the altar, and he cut up the bull and laid the meat on the wood. And then he did a strange thing – he had the people bring three large jugs of water, and he poured the water over the offering, soaking the meat, the wood, and the stone, until water ran down and soaked the ground. And then, Elijah called on the living God – and God sent fire from heaven; it burned the offering, and the wood, and the stone until there was only a fine dry powder left! And the people knew then that God was the living God, and that the prophets of Baal were phony representatives of a false God. And they were angry, and attacked the prophets of Baal and killed them all.

But, of course, Queen Jezebel was unhappy that her 400 prophets had been ridiculed, and killed! And she sent word that she was going to kill Elijah; he was a marked man. Now it is a strange thing, that Elijah, who stood up to 400 prophets of Baal, was terrified of Jezebel! He forgot how God had shown his power in the fire; in fact, Elijah was so frightened that he started running, and he ran until he was exhausted, and he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"  He answered, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away."

And God said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. (silence) (1 Kings 19: 2 – 13)

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

God was in the silence – God sometimes reveals himself in mighty and powerful ways, as in the fire on the altar, but sometimes God reveals himself in the still, small whisper.

And so, when we ask, is worship praise or is worship silence? The question misses the point. What passionate worship is really about is God’s unconditional love for us, and our desire to return that love. We do not come to worship to be entertained; we come to be sustained, renewed, comforted, and loved. The right question is, do we worship from the heart? Do we long for the sustenance of God with us, right here, right now?

Passionate worship changes people; encounters with the living God tend to do that! God uses worship to transform lives, heal wounded souls, renew hope, shape decisions, provoke change, inspire compassion, and bind people to one another in Christian community.

We are transformed by the renewing of our minds. When we come to worship expecting God to show up, we hear the words of the scripture, the hymns, and the message in a new light. We begin to ask, what is God saying to me? When you find yourself thinking, “God had a special word for me in that hymn”, or “in that sermon”, week after week, then you know that you have opened your heart and your mind to what God is saying to you.

Worship changes not just minds, but hearts. When our hearts are open to God’s presence, we know his love, his grace, his hope in our lives. Our perspective changes – the struggles of the week gone by fade, we can let go our fears and trust God with our lives; we experience the presence of the Holy Spirit. We can give our hearts to God, in a covenant relationship.

And when our hearts are changed, our lives are changed – we open ourselves to living in relationship to God, to living lives centered in God rather than in ourselves. We learn to love God more than ourselves!

You may be struggling with letting God change you; you may be fearful of encountering God in this intimate relationship I am talking about; you may be uncertain about letting God change your life.

Then Pray with me now:

God, I pray that you will empower those persons you are speaking to now – that you will open our hearts to the presence of the Spirit. Whether that may be a person accepting your grace in justification and rebirth, becoming a new creation; or that you may be calling a person to some purpose, or to change their life in some way – whatever it is, I pray that those to whom you are speaking will open their hearts to your Spirit. Amen.

DEVOTIONAL SCRIPTURE READINGS

For week of August 16, 2009

Mark 12: 28 – 31

Acts 2: 38 – 42

Colossians 2: 6 – 19

Colossians 3: 12 – 17

Psalm 150: 1 – 6

Deuteronomy 6: 1 – 9

Matthew 21: 12 – 17

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Why Church?
Colossians 1: 1 – 21

Paul is addressing the community in Christ that gathered in Colossae. He thanks God for them, for their faith and love. These saints, which referred to all those early believers, did not actually have a “church”, a building in which to meet. They would have met in someone’s home, a little group of Christians gathered together in a house church.

Today we are talking about what it means to BE a church – and about why we need a church. Those early Christians, meeting and worshiping together in a house, were a church.

I traveled a few years ago on a mission trip to Cuba with a group from seminary. In Cuba, the central churches in the cities are being restored and are active. But we also saw house churches.

We worshiped daily with Christians in Cuba; one day we traveled to a mission with a bicycle missionary. This young man rode his bicycle from town, about twenty miles, out into the countryside to establish and serve this little community. They met in someone’s home, more like a shack really; for meeting days the family’s sparse furniture was moved into the yard and home-made benches moved in on the hard-packed dirt floor to serve as pews. But the worship was very real, and the children sang and danced for us. Another day, I preached in a “Lenin Apartment”, a tiny home in a Russian-built apartment building. The church there packed itself into the bedroom, kitchen, and living room of the apartment, spilling out onto a small balcony. But people actually wept as my words were translated sentence by sentence. Another class-mate had the privilege of preaching in a “house church” that was a roof, like a car-port, on posts in a back yard, with the pigs in attendance! When we would sing, the pigs would squeal!! I have been in Notre Dame, and in some of the finest cathedrals in Europe, and they are truly magnificent. But nowhere have I known God’s presence like I knew it in those house churches in Cuba, where people worshiped with all their hearts, regardless of persecution, poverty, and trials.

A church, then, is not a building, but is a gathering of people, a community. The New Testament word is ecclesia.  But certainly not every gathering is an ecclesia, or a church! We can have tens of thousands of people in a stadium for a Hurricanes football game and they are not a church.

What is it, then, about a gathering that makes it a church?

Paul begins his letter by thanking God for the church at Colossae, for their faith in Jesus Christ. To be a church, we must be a community of faith. To be a Christian church, our faith must be in Jesus Christ. We read the Apostle’s Creed earlier. As Christians, we believe in God, the Creator and Father, in Jesus Christ, his Son, and in the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Trinity, they are together One God. One God, who is in very nature community. 

And we believe that in his incarnation, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ has brought about our justification, forgiveness, and restoration to relationship to God. That is, very basically, the content of Christian faith. But faith is about more than content, more than what we believe. Faith is also about trust. To be a community of faith, we must trust God with our lives – living in a way that shows that we trust him. When we trust God, we are not afraid to do what he asks us to do, go where he asks us to go, give what he asks us to give, for we know that God provides.

When we trust God as a church, we know that God has purpose and reason for the church’s existence in this place and time, and that God has the power to carry out God’s purpose.  If we follow God in faith, the Holy Spirit will empower us to be the church God plans for us to be.

In addition to having faith, these early Christians in Colossae loved all the saints. They loved one another and other Christians, because of the love Christ had for them. A Christian community builds loving relationships among its members and reaches out in love to others, welcoming them into community.

Paul then speaks of the Word of Truth, the Gospel the church in Colossae had received, a Word that was bearing fruit among the Colossians and across the whole world. For a gathering to be a church, we must preach the Gospel, the Word of God, the Good News of Jesus Christ. But we must not just preach the Word, it must bear fruit, in the form of changed lives, in our community; and fruit, in the form of changed lives, in people welcomed into our community.

Paul prays for the Colossians, that they may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will and grow in the knowledge of God. Now y’all don’t have to tell this to a soul, but I will tell you a secret – Not any one of us already knows everything! Not a one! And so, if we are to be filled with the knowledge of God, we are all going to have to keep on learning, and growing. And, we may have to learn new ways of learning!

For a community to be a church, we have to continue to learn and grow, and we have to be intentional about our teaching and our learning, teaching our children and youth. If we don’t teach our children about God, and build Christian values into their lives at an early age, they will learn to worship other gods, those of this world, this culture, and they will develop other values, those of this world, this culture. If we do not teach our children, someone else will, and we will have no control over what they learn. I have heard people say, well, I don’t make Johnny go to Sunday School; he can make up his own mind about that when he is older. Well, if Johnny never gets the basic information about faith, he will be unable to make an informed decision later! It is the responsibility of society to socialize children into the values and knowledge of the community. To fail to teach our children these simple truths and values is like saying, well, I’ll not bother with potty training Johnny; he can decide about that when he grows up. What chance does Johnny have in life then? 

We must be intentional about teaching adults as well, helping one another to continue growing spiritually as well as in knowledge. Jesus was called a Rabbi, a teacher. The people who followed a rabbi tried to learn as much from him as they could, tried to follow his ways as closely as possible, and serve him in whatever ways they could. Such followers, servants, and students were called disciples. When we are intentional about nurturing learning and growth in our community, it is called discipleship, and discipleship is another essential component of a church.

Paul again prays that the Colossians will bear fruit; this time, though, it is the fruit of good works. A gathering that is a church is not inwardly focused on itself; it seeks to live out Christ’s love for the world by being a community of people who love their neighbors, and live out that love in doing good for their neighbors.

John Wesley had three simple rules for membership in his societies back in England in the early days of the Methodist movement: 1.  Do no harm; avoid evil of every kind; 2. do all the good you can, to everyone you can, all the time you can; and 3. Attend upon all the ordinances of God, which we could translate to love God and show God your love. If we are to do all the good we can, then we must find ways to serve our neighbors in love. The food you brought last week for our Food Pantry is one example of doing good in serving others.

But getting back to Paul’s words to the Colossians, letters written to the early churches were read aloud as a part of worship. And so, it should not be surprising, at verse 15, to find that Paul praises Christ in what many call the Christ Hymn. It is one of those beautiful passages of scripture we all love. In this, Paul is worshiping, together with those to whom the letter is read, and meeting that third rule of Wesley’s, loving God. Being church is about expressing our love for God in Passionate Worship.

At the close of the Christ Hymn, Paul reminds the Colossians that Christ has reconciled them to God through his death. But he puts a provision on that thought, “Provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith.” To be a church, a gathering of people must help one another remain steady in the faith. Folks, to be a church we need something more than Sunday morning worship. We need some sort of small groups, where we can encourage one another, disciple and teach one another, and hold one another accountable. When John Wesley was preaching in the fields, highways, and by-ways of England, people were being saved, having heart and life changing experiences, by the thousands! But he found that they soon drifted back into old patterns. It was then that he set up his Bands and Societies, small groups where people met regularly, and probed one another, “How is it with your soul?” “Have you done all the good you could?” “Where have you done harm?” It was these societies that eventually became the Methodist Church. Years later, Wesley’s old friend and sometimes adversary, George Whitfield, looked back at his own life’s work. Comparing to Wesley’s, he said that it was this organization, this connection in small groups, that had made Wesley’s work productive, and his own, in lacking these things, had turned out to be a “rope of sand”.

We have seen, then, that to be a church we must have faith, and love for one another and our neighbor; we must preach the Word in a way that bears fruit; we must invite and welcome others in; we must be continuously learning and growing, and discipling one another; we must do good in service to our neighbor; we must love God in passionate worship; and we must encourage, support, and build up one another.

But, frankly, that all sounds like a lot of work! And why do we need it anyway? Why can’t we just go out in the woods, or maybe to the beach, and pray now and then? Why do we need church?

We need church because being Christian is about those same things, and we cannot do those things alone. When we think we can grow and study all by ourselves, we get way off into our own human thinking, finding things that confirm our own pre-formed opinion. Or, we start with a vengeance and soon fall by the wayside. How many of you have made New Year’s resolutions to read the Bible through? What usually happens is along about February or March, the reader gets to Leviticus, and somehow we just cannot get excited about reading Leviticus! And then the daily reading becomes, well, maybe every-other-day, or weekly, and soon not at all! We need others around us to hold us accountable and encourage and strengthen us. We do a lot better with one another! Even groups like Weight Watchers and AA know that!

And we need church to teach our children, so that they at least have a chance to accept Christianity for themselves as they grow up! Today many people have never heard of the things we believe in. It is no longer revival that is needed, but mission; there are people in our own neighborhoods who have never heard the Good News of Jesus Christ! I had a former son-in-law who thought Easter was only about a big bunny who brought chocolate eggs. We need the church so that faith doesn’t die with our generation.

And we need to belong, we need to be a part of something greater than ourselves, to see God in one another. Each one of us needs a faith community where we can feel like we belong, where we can serve with the gifts and power of the Spirit, where we are challenged to continue to learn and grow, and where we are loved for who we are. That is why we need church.

Would you pray with me:

Dear God,

We thank you for this gathering here today, for the church here on Big Pine that it forms, and for the larger Methodist Church of which we are a part. Help us, Lord, to be a better church, to fulfill your will for our being.

Amen.

SCRIPTURE READINGS

WEEK OF AUGUST 9, 2009

Colossians 1: 1 – 23

Psalm 84

Matthew 21: 33 – 44

1 Corinthians 12: 1 – 11

1 Corinthians 12: 12 – 31

Acts 1: 12 – 26

Acts 2: 1 – 17, 37 - 47

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Unity of Spirit
Ephesians 4: 1- 6, 25 – 35

We will conclude our study of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians today. Next week we will be looking at the first chapter of Colossians as we begin a study of what it means to be church, and why we need church anyway.

Over the past few weeks, in Paul’s words to the church at Ephesus, we have seen the greatness of God’s grace and the un-measurable height and width and depth and length of the love of Christ. Now, having talked about God’s amazing grace, Paul turns to the way we live in response to grace, how we respond to God’s love by loving one another. He begins by saying we should lead a life worthy of the calling we have received. This is not simply a message to the pastor, who is called to a specific ministry of preaching and servant leadership, or to a missionary who is called to serve in a particular way, but is a message to all of us. We are all called, to live as Christians, to show the world that we are in relationship to God, that we know God’s love. The word Paul actually uses would translate literally to “walk worthy of the calling”. Paul is saying we cannot just talk the talk, we have to walk the walk.

Walking the walk, in Christ, is about attitude, integrity, and authenticity in the way we live, in community, about loving one another, as Christ has loved us. Walking the walk is about relationships, with Christ and with one another. If we live in Christ, in response to Christ’s love for us, we live with an attitude of humility towards one another, as Christ was humble. There is no room here for one-upmanship!

Oh, our culture does not like humility, does not even understand humility! We are all about self-centeredness, self-actualization, being the winner – the one who comes out on top – the Top Chef, the Survivor, the Bachelor who gets the girl, the American Idol.

But something remarkable happened in Tallahassee a few months ago. There is a reality show that features people who give to others. Extreme Makeover did a segment in Tallahassee. The Kadzis family were giving and loving people; George and Barbara had two children of their own, and had adopted 5 children from China, all of them special needs children left in orphanages because of their physical disabilities. One of the girls is blind, one is deaf, two children have cleft palates. The Kadzis home was small, not adequately designed for the children’s special needs, and had suffered hurricane damage. The week the Extreme Makeover people called, George was told his brain cancer had recurred.  People from all over the community, 2500 volunteers, came together to rebuild their home, in 7 days, with all the materials donated. George died during filming, before the home was completed, but he knew his family would have this great home. It was rewarding to see people come together to help this family who had given so much, who were loving and gentle to children in need.

If we are in Christ our attitude is also one of gentleness. That too is characteristic of Christ, the Good Shepherd. And, much like humility, our culture does not value gentleness, except perhaps for those caring for small animals or infants. Like humility, gentleness comes from valuing others, valuing relationships, rather than our own egos; from knowing that all we are and have is a gift of grace.

As people in Christ, we are patient with one another, bearing with one another in love. We know that we are not going to be perfect – that relationships are formed between imperfect people. Sometimes we are going to make mistakes, say the wrong thing; we are going to have our own little flaws, or bigger ones. But if we are patient with one another, if we focus on our love for one another, on relationships, rather than on our own egos, then we will build positive relationships.

It is in such relationships that Christian community is formed, and united in the Spirit. In other words, through the building of relationships, we allow the Spirit to work within us, to unite us into one body, the Body of Christ. This is not to say that we are all the same, but that we are united in our diversity, through the Spirit.  But such relationships don’t just happen. Like all relationships, we have to work at them, by being humble, gentle, and patient, loving one another, maintaining peace, and valuing relationship.

But why should we be concerned about building the Body, about maintaining the unity of the Spirit? Paul steps back a moment, and reminds us of seven ways that we are one: there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

We are all members of the Body of Christ – all Christians are members of the one Body; we are not separate bodies of Methodists, Baptists, and Catholics, but all one Body, the Body of Christ. Each of our denominations, and each local church, represents a unique part of the Body.

We are empowered by the One Spirit, and we have one hope – our relationship to God, now and in eternity. Our one Lord, Jesus Christ, has made possible that relationship; and we share our faith in him.

By one baptism, Paul speaks not of our sacrament, but of the baptism in the Spirit that it represents. And finally, there is one God, the Father of all. We live in unity, in response to the grace and love of our Lord and our God. It is not enough even to pray and meditate day and night if we separate ourselves from community; unity with the Body of Christ is a necessary part of being Christian.

In verse 25, the practical lesson on how we are to live in response to grace continues. We are to be truthful. At the very minimum this means not lying to one another. If we are to build community, we must be able to trust that what we say to one another is truth. That means not even lying to make someone else feel good, but speaking the truth in love.

Now, I have seen people use this verse to justify saying mean things to someone else, and that is certainly not the intent here. Nor does it say we have to say everything that crosses our minds. Out of love for one another, we refrain from saying things that are unkind, or hurtful things that are unnecessary. There are times when the better part of wisdom is silence, and we can decline to answer a question that is private or inappropriate, but what we do say should be truth; and we should not tell a partial truth, deliberately leaving out things in a way that leads to a wrong conclusion.

Now any discussion of ethics would ask, aren’t there times when a person has to lie? When Christians hid Jewish people from the Nazis, for example. Remember in the Sound of Music, how the sisters in the convent hid the family and lied to the Germans? Love for others, the valuing of a life, could necessitate a lie in such extraordinary circumstances. But it is a real tragedy when lying becomes habitual, regardless of how good the reason for it may be. Habitual lying becomes easier and easier, until we no longer know what is truth and what is not; then we tend to lie to ourselves.

But, truth is about more than not lying. Truth is integrity of character – Our character is who we are, that combination of our beliefs, values, life history and attitudes that controls the way we respond to day-to-day situations. Integrity is a coherence of our spoken values and our behavior, when our walk matches our talk. As people of integrity, we can count on one another to speak truth, and to live in a way that our actions match our words. One of the best things you can say about a person, is that he or she is a person of integrity.

Truth and integrity are essential to the building of relationships. If we are to work and serve together as a community, if we are to be members of one another, we must trust one another. We build trust by demonstrating our trustworthiness, our integrity, by walking the walk.

Living in community also requires controlling our anger. Paul concedes that we may be angry; it is not a sin to feel anger. There are things that we should be angry about: poverty, injustice, racism, abuse. But anger is usually destructive, and in our human condition, we always seem to feel that our own anger is justified. It is easier to justify our anger than it is to forgive and to bear with one another in love. 

We should not allow our emotions, especially anger, to lead us into sin; when anger leads us to sin against our brothers and sisters, it gives the devil a foot-hold in our lives, Paul says.

The best policy is not to let the sun go down on our anger, but to resolve issues before the end of the day – to talk and work out our differences. There are ways to talk about our issues that help us resolve things, rather than adding fuel to the fire: listen to the other person’s perspective on the situation, before you speak truth, as you see it; and use “I” messages – “I feel angry when this happens” rather than attacking the other person, “You always do this” or “You make me so mad!” No one can make us angry – we choose how we respond. We are responsible for our own response and our own behavior. To live in community, we must accept that responsibility.  Continuing in our anger is destructive – it harms the person feeling anger physically, raises blood pressure and heart rate, increases adrenalin, and depresses the immune system; and it harms us spiritually, our souls shrivel into little hard shells of anger; and we build walls to protect those little shells – and anger harms our relationships with other people, not just the one at whom we are angry, but with all the others who really don’t want to listen to it anymore, and all those we shut out with our walls. Anger and bitterness isolate us into ourselves, destroying lives and relationships.

Instead of lies, anger and retaliation, we should speak in ways that build people up. There are people with whom I love to talk, people who help me see things from another perspective, without ever putting me down or being hyper critical. Don’t you have such people in your life? When we interact in that way, we build one another up, and we build relationships in the Body of Christ. When we say things that tear other people down – gossip and slander, or simply being harshly critical, it is destructive to relationships in the Body. To be destructive to unity in the Body of Christ is to grieve the Holy Spirit.

We should put away bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, and slander, in fact all kinds of malice and hard feelings towards one another. Instead, we should be kind and tenderhearted, and we should forgive. These are things that build relationships, and build up the Body, the community that is the church.

And we do all this, we live in this way, in response to grace, because of the gift of God’s love. We respond to God’s grace, and to the amazing love of Christ, by loving one another. For Christ gave himself up for us –

As we come to his table in Holy Communion, we share in his gift, a gift of love and grace; we share in community, with Christ and with one another; and we share in his death and his resurrection – we know his presence here with us – and we remember his sacrifice for us.

Please turn with me to page 13 in your hymnals as we continue the liturgy of Holy Communion.

Scripture Readings

For the Week of August 2, 2009

2 Samuel 11:26 - 12:9, 13

John 6: 25 – 35

Ephesians 4: 1 – 16

Ephesians 4: 17 – 24

Ephesians 4: 25 - 5:2

Romans 12: 1 – 21

Matthew 5: 1 - 12

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Rooted in Love
Ephesians 3: 14 – 21

Without a doubt, the third chapter of Ephesians is my favorite chapter in all the Bible. When I am in a hard place, and need just to get through the next day, I read this chapter over and over and over again. There is so much here that reaches my very soul, that reassures, comforts, and empowers me.

I read here how Paul, himself an apostle and a founder of our faith, author of much of our New Testament, considered himself an unworthy servant of the gospel. A few verses before the section we read, Paul says, “I have become a servant of this gospel, through the gift of God’s grace given me, by the working of his power.” –

Paul was imprisoned, but he was not defined by the hardships; he speaks of being a “prisoner for the Lord”. He relies on the power of the Spirit to use whatever circumstances he finds himself in. Christ defines him as a servant of the gospel. Over the years I met many people with cancer – some of those folks allowed themselves to be defined by the cancer; it was all they talked about, all that occupied their minds. They would focus on the disease and on how terrible they felt. There were others, though, who never allowed cancer to be their definition. It was an inconvenience, an annoyance; it might even be their death, but it was not who they were. Do we sometimes let circumstances define us, allow ourselves to be a victim? Or do we let Christ establish our identity as members of his family?

“Though,” Paul says, “I am the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me.” I hear in his words a wonder that I feel, at God’s choosing to use me as his servant. And I hear that it is not through my own power, not through my own worthiness, but in his power that I am to serve. It is through God’s power, and God’s grace, that any of us serve him.

We have all received a measure of the gift of God’s grace. Grace is free – John Wesley insisted that we remember that grace is a gift of God. Grace is free, but grace is not cheap. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a leader of what was called “The Confessing Church” in Germany, a church that defied Hitler and the Nazis, refusing to allow the state to control what the church preached. He taught in an underground seminary. Many of the distinguished religious scholars escaped Germany, and Bonhoeffer had opportunities to do so, but he said he had an obligation to the people, and to God. He wrote about “cheap grace” before he was executed by the Nazis in a German prison camp, reminding us of the obligations of grace. Grace obligates us to respond, enlists us in God’s work, and empowers us to do what God calls us to do. Grace brings with it responsibility.

Our reading today began with verse 14, “For this reason I kneel before the Father.” Because of this awesome calling to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, because of the grace of God in destroying the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile, because God in his mercy wills to save us all – through grace; for all these reasons Paul is moved to prayer. When we stand in awe of all God has done for us, we too are moved to prayer.

Paul kneels before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. He emphasizes the inclusiveness of God’s grace; as the family of God we belong to a larger human family, all members of which owe their allegiance to God. The title “Father” emphasizes our relationship to God and to one another as brothers and sisters, related through our heavenly Father. Paul also emphasizes here the cosmic scope of God’s purpose. In God’s plan, all creation is reconciled to him – in a new heaven and a new earth.

Paul prays to the Father, but his prayer is for the people to whom he writes, the church at Ephesus. He prays that they may be strengthened by the Spirit so that they may know Christ’s presence and love intimately. The Spirit is the power of God at work within us – Paul prays for his readers that the Spirit will be so strong in them that it will be the controlling center of their lives.

There is power in the Spirit – the power of God – the power of the indwelling of Christ within us – the power to be the people God wills us to be. Through grace we have been saved, and through grace we are empowered. And through that powerful work of the Spirit, we can be rooted and established in the love of Christ.

One day I looked out my window to see a good-sized tree lying across my neighbor’s yard, and her car. I recalled that I had seen her walking her dog in just that spot only a few minutes before, and was relieved to see her walking now, surveying the damage. It was a sunny day; there had been no storm or even a high wind; the tree had just fallen over. It was a water oak. I don’t know if you have those here in the keys, but in central and north Florida they are fast-growing trees that most often grow along the banks of streams. They grow quickly, but develop a shallow root system and blow over, or just fall down, as this one did. A tree needs deep roots to hold it in the ground.

We need deep roots to hold us – roots that are deep in the love of Christ. God’s love provides us with the nourishment for our soul, the water for which our soul thirsts, the foundation on which we find stability. Without such roots, we can claim to have life under control, we can think things will always be rosy, we can rely on ourselves and our own resources. But when the storms of life hit, when there is sickness, grief, or hard times, shallow roots cannot hold us. We will blow over in the wind.

It is in the power of the Spirit that our roots are established; but we must allow the Spirit to work in us. We must nurture the root system through prayer, worship, reading the Scriptures, study, participating in the sacraments, and in Christian community. These are the things John Wesley called the means of grace – those ordinary ways in which the Spirit is enabled to work with us and within us. In prayer, worship and sacrament we engage with God’s Spirit, hear his call, his Word to us, and deepen our relationship to him. In scripture we grow in our knowledge of God’s character, God’s revelation of himself to us, through the people of Israel, and then, most fully, through Jesus Christ. In community we grow and nurture one another, helping one another to put down roots. We cannot be Christians alone – we must be a part of Christian community to be a part of the Body of Christ, to know this grace, this love beyond reason.

But the Spirit empowers us, to put our roots deep into that awesome, amazing love – love beyond anything we have ever known – the love of God in our Lord, Jesus Christ. Love is the character of God. Being rooted in love enables us to perceive love. There is an old hymn – derived from an even older Jewish poem – that speaks of God’s love. It says:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky. (Frederick Lehman, 1948)

Paul’s prayer is that the Ephesians, and we, would have the power to know this love which is beyond knowing, in its breadth and length, and height and depth. To know such a love is beyond mere emotion, beyond feeling, something we must sense in our soul, with spiritual senses empowered by the Spirit. How can we possibly understand? Only in the power of the Spirit, the work of Christ within us –

We need sometimes to take the time to contemplate such love, all that Christ has done for us, just to let the enormity of such love seep into our souls.

I recall, on a mission trip to Jamaica, watching the sun rise over the ocean, and staring out to sea – thinking Christ’s love for us is wider even than the sea; and deeper than its deepest depths; higher than the sky that stretches above the farthest star.

Being rooted in love, we are empowered to know love – and from knowing love, we are filled with the fullness of God. Love is both the source of our knowing, and its goal. Paul was one who had been surprised and overwhelmed with God’s love. He wanted that experience for all God’s people. From the experience of love we know love and are transformed. If we are not changed by such an experience, then we surely have not really known love.

Many people today claim that religion is false, that Christians do not practice what they preach. If we have truly experienced God’s love, then we live as a people changed. As we encounter God’s love in Christ we are filled with love, until, like a fountain, love overflows our being, and we must love God and our neighbor.

Paul completes his prayer with a doxology, “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Like the rest of the prayer, it expresses Paul’s awe at the power of the Spirit within us, the work of God for us, and that unfathomable love of God. God, he says, is able – Sometimes we forget that, sometimes our God, the God in our minds and hearts, is too small. We think it is not worth our time to pay attention to our God, to give him our prayers, devotion and praise, or, we speak to him only in duress, and then we bargain or demand rather than listening. We seek out little tin gods, whom we can control. We think God is too distant, too remote, and too uninvolved.  We think he is, perhaps, a lot like us.

That is our problem, not God’s. I spoke once with one of my patients who was an atheist. His image of God was of an old man floating in the sky demanding obeisance. I cannot believe in that God, he said. I replied, neither can I believe in such a God, but let me tell you about my God! And I told him about how God had changed my life.

The God of the Bible is intimately involved in the lives of his people. This is the God we need for our lives. And God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. This is not a health and wealth theology; we cannot think that we will never face adversity, that we will always prosper, that our plans will always succeed because we are Christians. Our plans are petty, compared to God’s plan. It was not part of my plan to become a pastor, and certainly I never thought of coming to the keys, but I have given myself over to God’s plan, and am amazed at where God is taking me. When we are centered in God’s plan, rather than our own, and focused in God’s love, there is no limit to what God may do in our lives.  And there is no limit to what God may do right here at Big Pine United Methodist Church!

Ours is a great God – to him be the glory!

Would you pray with me:

“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Scripture Readings

For your daily devotion:

Week of 7/26/09

Ephesians 3: 1 – 13

Ephesians 3: 14 – 21

Psalm 146

John 3: 16 – 21

John 14: 15 – 21

John 15: 12 – 17

1 Corinthians 13: 1 – 13

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No Longer Strangers
Ephesians 2: 4 – 10, 13 – 22

A few years ago, before I went to Tallahassee,  I was serving as a volunteer assistant pastor at my home church in Port Orange. We were meeting on an April morning with a group that planned worship. But one of the group members came in very upset. Have you heard the news from Virginia State, she asked? We will be heading up there this afternoon. Her niece had been one of those shot. Our parishioner and her husband spent a great deal of time in Virginia over the next few months; their niece was a brave young lady, and eventually recovered fully. She had survived by pretending to be dead. But over the time of her recovery, what was remarkable was the way the families of those students who had been injured, and those who had been killed, came together, supported one another, became a community. The whole campus became a community!

The student who committed that crime was mentally ill, and certainly we could argue that anyone who commits such a crime is ill. But often, we hear that the perpetrators of such events are people who felt estranged, isolated and alone, outsiders, strangers. They are seeking desperately, and wrongly, for some way to be recognized, to no longer be a stranger. There is something difficult about being the stranger. And yet, it is an experience we all face at some point.

When have you been the stranger? Have you moved to a new town, or even a new country, and felt alone and isolated? Perhaps as a child, or even as a teen-ager, you moved or changed schools and found yourself in a place where no one knew who you were, where you felt alone, where you were the stranger?

We all have a need for belonging; our human nature is social, communal. We are created to belong to a family, a community, and to God. But often that drive is twisted: young people may join a gang to lessen their sense of isolation; people may identify with a cult or other fringe element just to be a part of a community. Advertisers recognize our need to belong and present products in a context of belonging – grocery stores present commercials of loving families at holiday times because we all want that. Or remember the commercial where the elderly couple brings over a pie to welcome a young couple on their street? I think it was a coffee commercial, but it sold coffee by reminding people of community. Advertisers know our need for belonging!

We have been created for community, with one another and with God. When we are far from God, then we are strangers, even to one another; when, as Paul begins this passage, we follow the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now at work among those who are disobedient, we are separating ourselves from God. Paul is talking about the power of sin, the selfishness of our human nature, and that is what separates us from God. In our separation, we are far away; we are strangers. Ephesians 2 begins with a dismal picture of strangers lost and lonely, without hope and without God. But there is no need for us to remain strangers!

In Christ Jesus we have been brought near to God, and we have been brought into community with others who are a part of his family. Perhaps when I began, talking about being strangers in a new place, you thought that I was talking about myself, about moving here. If so, you would have been wrong. There have been times in my life when I felt alone and a stranger. When my son was a baby, my husband and I moved to Moses Lake, Washington. We rented a little house on the fringes of town, and he drove our only car to work each day. I felt isolated and alone, in the house all day with an infant, and no way to go anywhere. That was a hard time for me.  But today I am not a stranger. I am a part of the community of God; I have been brought near through Christ. He is my peace. He has given me a family, in the church, and he walks with me every step; I am not alone.

Paul says we are no longer alone, no longer strangers, because we who were far away have been brought near. For Christ has broken down the dividing wall, the hostility between us.

There are many things that could divide us, could keep us from community, but Paul had in mind a specific division when he wrote this passage. Throughout the Old Testament, the Jewish people were set apart, as a people holy to God. Their laws of special foods, circumcision, and rituals were intended to keep them separate. There was a wall in the temple. Gentiles, even those who were God-fearers, converts to Judaism, could go only into the “Court of the Gentiles”; for a Gentile to go further, past the wall, was punishable by death. Yet, it was always God’s intention that through the Jewish people, the world, the whole of creation, should be reconciled to him. That reconciliation took place through Jesus Christ.

The first Christians were the Jewish followers of Jesus. He was first identified as a rabbi, or teacher, then as a prophet, and finally as the Messiah. He was nailed to the cross with the inscription, “King of the Jews”. The Jewish Christians thought they had an exclusive right to Jesus, thought they were the ones reconciled to God through him. They had enjoyed the privilege of being God’s people since Abraham; even in the exile, they were still the people of God; surely they were now even more so. They disdained the Gentile believers, arrogantly called them names.

And it was true; until Christ, the Gentiles, and that would have been most of our ancestors, were people without hope, alien to the covenantal promises of God, and without God in the world. But Paul says they are no longer strangers, for in his death Christ has broken down the dividing wall. The dividing wall in the temple no longer applies, for the temple is now within the people of Christ. It was not just the genetic descendants of Abraham who are reconciled to God, but also those adopted through Christ; in him the two have been made one. The Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians are one in Christ.

Christ gave himself, not just for his own family, tribe, or nation; Christ gave himself for all humankind. He is our peace; he brings peace between humankind and God, and between people. In him all people are reconciled, to God and to one another – dividing walls, barriers between people do not apply. As Paul says again in Galatians 3:28, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

Not just the temple wall, but the religious law practiced by the Jews kept them separate. Here, and throughout his letters, Paul is saying that the law cannot save. In Galatians, Paul says that Christ has set us free from the yoke of slavery to the law. The law does not have the power to save, but condemns, in that it points out how sinful we are.

How does that apply to us, who never even thought about following the Levitical laws?  How often have you seen religion made into a set of rules to follow? Do not eat, do not touch, do not do this, do not do that. We cannot be saved by being followers of the rules. The Pharisees were followers of the rules; and Jesus constantly harassed them about following the details of the law and forgetting the intent. The law, Jesus said, was really summed up in two: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength; and love your neighbor as yourself. If you love God, you don’t need a law to tell you that you must worship him – you worship him because you desire to show him your love! If you love your neighbor, you would never steal or be envious of what he has! 

The main problem with the religious law, or with a religion of rules, is that it gives us the idea that we save ourselves in our zealous adherence to them. As a Pharisee, Paul struggled to follow the law better than anyone he knew; he even persecuted the Christians. But he was unhappy; he somehow knew that he could never be good enough! But then – on the Damascus Road, he encountered the risen Christ!

Whether followers of the law, adherent to every rule, or far from God, without hope in this world, whether Jew or Gentile, we must all encounter the risen Christ. We cannot save ourselves. But God has reached out to us – in grace. God acted, in history. Some 2000 years ago, in a dusty little country lying at the crossroads of the Roman Empire, a baby was born – a poor child, he was laid to sleep in a cattle trough. He was a fully human child, but he was also God – the Son of God. In him, God reached down to become one of us, in his grace, he came down to live among us. He walked on the dusty roads of Galilee, sailed with the fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, angered the religious leaders who thought him a radical outsider, and was crucified – on a cross. He did it because it was the only way to bridge the gap between God and humankind. We were too far away to ever be good enough to get close to God on our own! He did it because he is a God of mercy, a God of love, a God of grace. Christ came to us, and saved us – by grace. It is by grace you have been saved!

Christ died on the cross, but God raised him from the dead. It was not a resuscitation, no heavenly CPR, and he was not a ghost. God did a new thing in the resurrection. It was in a new spiritual body that Christ arose. In his resurrection, the powers of sin and death were defeated. And we are raised up with him, Paul says, to sit with him in the heavenly places. We who were dead in our sins and transgressions, far from God, isolated and alone in our selfish, human ways are now joined with Christ, and with his new people are one in him, through the grace of God.

It is by grace we have been saved, through faith, and this is not our own doing, but a gift of God. Faith is a gift of God, a spiritual gift. We must accept the gift, open our hearts to accept the gift of faith, trust in God, and through faith, accept the gift of salvation. It is all a gift of God, all grace, and we cannot boast about it, for it is not through what we do, but what God has done for us.

But that does not mean that it doesn’t matter what we do! For we are re-created as a new people in Christ; we are re-created to do good works in his name. In other words, we have to get our cart and our horse in the right order! It is not through our works, however good they may be, however well we may follow the rules, it is not through our works that we are saved! That old song about earning stars in our crowns for the good deeds we do gets it wrong. It is God who does the saving, through grace! And yet, when we are one with Christ, we love him, and we love his people – and out of that love, we act. We worship passionately, practice radical hospitality, give extravagantly; love one another; serve one another; feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care for the sick. Christ becomes our center, not ourselves. John Wesley used to say, show me the fruit of your faith; fruits of faith were criteria for continuing in his society, and for ministry. We are not saved through our works, but having been saved, knowing the unsurpassing love of God, we do good works. Centered in his love, we cannot help but love.

Let us pray:

Dear God, we thank you for the immeasurable riches of grace you have given us in Christ Jesus. We thank you that you reached out to us, in love. Help us to love you in return, to be one with you. Amen.

Scripture Readings

For your daily devotion; Week of 07-19– 2009

Ephesians 2

Mark 7: 24 - 30

John 4:7 - 26

Acts 10:9 - 17, 25 - 33

1 Peter 2: 4 - 10

Romans 8: 1 - 17

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A Plan for the Fullness of Time
Ephesians 1: 3 – 14

As pastors in the Florida Conference, we do not generally have much say about where we are to go. But, when I was asked to come to Big Pine, I was given the opportunity to decide whether or not I would take the appointment, and given a couple of days to make the decision. I must tell you, I prayed about it and asked God for guidance, but I came to a decision fairly quickly, and called the DS (the District Superintendent) back to accept, with all my heart, before the time was up. And when I came down here to visit, I had the sense that God truly was sending me here. God has a plan for Big Pine United Methodist Church!

God had a plan for the church at Ephesus as well – a plan for their inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people.

This passage we read is the beginning of Paul’s letter to Ephesus. Letters were read aloud in the early church, and were a part of worship. This letter begins with praise to God, a description of God’s character as revealed in Christ. Praise is a natural result when we know God, see and feel his revelation in Christ, when we are in Christ.

God has a plan, a plan for me and a plan for you, and a plan for all of creation – a plan for the fullness of time. I used to love Star Trek; I haven’t seen the new Star Trek movie yet, but I remember the old ones – do any of you remember how they used to warp time, bend it, sling-shot around the sun to manipulate it? Time, in many of our science fiction stories, is a paradox. I think in scripture time is sometimes also paradoxical.

God can intervene both outside and within the limits of time. God’s plan was in place outside of time, in eternity, before creation, and will be after the end of time. God also intervenes in human history, in time. God always loved us, created us for relationship, and from the beginning had a plan to draw us to him, to reconcile us to him, a plan for our forgiveness, and our salvation.

God’s plan was a divine mystery, Paul says, until it was revealed in Christ. God’s plan was, and is, and will be, brought to fulfillment in Christ.

Paul uses that phrase, “in Christ,” a lot. What does it mean, and how is that a part of God’s plan? From the beginning, Christ was the focal point of God’s plan. The stories of the Old Testament, of a people chosen by God to be his people, lead to the ultimate revelation of God in Christ. He embodies what Israel should have been, a revelation of God to the world.

In the metanarrative of the Bible, and of human history, Christ is the climax of the story. In the beginning of the story, God chose the people of Israel as his covenant people; they were the elect. But in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, a new covenant is made and God chooses all those who are in Christ as his covenant people. To be “in Christ” means to be incorporated into union with him, into the Body of Christ, to become one with him. It is “in Christ” that we find redemption, grace, and salvation. Those who are in Christ, we, become the people of a new covenant, the new elect.

I always had difficulty with that word, “election”, or “elect”. It seemed to mean some exclusive club. When I was in high school there were social clubs; the social life of high school in that little town centered on those clubs, and I was not in any of them. I was never “tapped” or “elected” to join. And of course, I always told myself that I would spurn such an invitation if they offered. That way, I could feel superior, and less slighted.

But “election” here does not refer to some exclusive club; it does not even refer to individuals. Now we really have a hard time with that, in our individualistic, all about me, culture!! Election is a corporate term, focusing collectively, on those who are in Christ, those who are the Body of Christ. God chooses people, in fact invites all people in, and people become “the elect” only in and through the Elect One, Christ. The initiative is God’s, the action is grace, and the center is Christ. The work of Christ, the grace and redemption found in him, reveals God to us, expresses the value God places in human beings. When Paul speaks of election, he is praising God for his grace in drawing us, all of us, to him.

The purpose of election is relationship, a special relationship – adoption into a family. I knew some folks who adopted two little girls from China. The effort and expense they endured to bring those children into their home was huge, but they thought those little girls were special, and they were willing to do whatever it took to bring them home, to adopt them into their family. They were chosen to be a part of a family. God chooses to adopt people into his family through Jesus Christ. The cost he endured to adopt us into his family was greater than we can even imagine, but he gave his all, because he loved us that much!

We are elect as the Body of Christ, in Christ, as a corporate body; but God values each human being, and loves each one as his own child. You hear the tension here? We are the body of the elect, but we are also redeemed, and adopted, as individual persons – and it is all grace, and it is all in Christ.

As people of the post-modern world, we tend to skepticism, to think of reality in terms of what we can touch, see, hear, or feel. Our society is really conflicted about the spiritual world – on one hand people deny religion, and God, and on the other are searching for some spiritual reality for their lives. There is a greater reality than that of our physical world. We live not only in the physical, but also in the larger spiritual world, in the reality of God’s work in Christ and his gift of the Spirit. We are blessed there with every spiritual blessing, all that God’s Spirit brings to enable life: revelation, adoption, grace, forgiveness, redemption and salvation.

God had a plan, from the beginning, before we were born, for your redemption, and mine, and for the redemption of all creation. God has a plan for our forgiveness, our reconciliation, and our adoption as his beloved children. God’s plan is accomplished through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He came into the world, not accidentally, not on a whim, but as the fulfillment of God’s plan, at just the right time, in just the right place, the embodiment of God’s grace. He is God, come alongside us to embrace us and walk with us, and die for us.

The word, “redeemed”, means to buy something to prevent its being destroyed or lost. In the Old Testament, a relative was obligated to redeem land that God had given a family. Boaz redeemed the land of Naomi’s husband, and the right to marry her daughter-in-law, Ruth. As redeemed people, we have been bought, with the blood of Christ. We can think of that as Christ’s substitution for us, in atonement for our sins.

But what if we think in terms of being “in Christ”? Paul often says that we died with Christ, to be raised with him in the resurrection. If we are “in Christ”, if we are a part of him, then our sinful self, the human condition that tends only to selfishness and sin, dies with him, but the new self, adopted as a child of God, arises with him. Sins are actions, but SIN is a mindset, a habit, a propensity for drifting further and further away from God, a chain that binds us, and imprisons us. Through the action of Christ, redemption, forgiveness, and salvation set us free. We are drawn to him in grace, we are redeemed in him in grace, and we grow more holy as we dwell in him. Salvation is not about believing certain facts; salvation is about being in Christ, in relationship with God as his dearly loved children.

As God’s adopted children, we have an inheritance. We are sealed with the Spirit.  People once used a blob of wax into which they pressed their seal, an emblem that said this belongs to me. When we are sealed with the Spirit, we belong to God. The Spirit, Paul says, is also a guarantee of our future life with God. It is the Spirit in us that helps us to grow in Christ, helps us reach fuller relationship with God, incorporates us into God’s plan.

In our world today, it sometimes seems that God is losing. We are in the midst of two wars; there are people starving across the world, a pandemic of AIDS, and our own economy is in chaos. Crime and drugs seem to be taking over our cities. And there are many people in this world who do not know God. It is a bleak picture, and there are those who would deny God’s power to change it. They say God must be going to yank the “good” people out of it and let the rest self-destruct. But that is to deny God’s plan for the ultimate salvation of humankind, and the gathering together of all things to himself in Christ. We cannot accept the world view that sin and evil will win. God will win. It has been his plan all along. God will continue the fulfillment of his plan in Christ.

God has a plan, for all humankind, and that plan is revealed and fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In him the plan is worked out, fulfilled. In him the whole universe will be brought together – he is the focal point for all creation. The fullness of time arrived in Christ, and has yet to reach ultimate fulfillment. Here is another of those tensions, or paradoxes. It is the already and not yet. The revelation of God’s will in Christ is past, present, and future; the fulfillment of God’s plan is already begun in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and will yet reach ultimate fulfillment at the end of time, when all creation will be gathered to him. To live in this tension, we need to remember all of God’s story; and we need to look forward to his comforting promise for the future, a future which is already experienced in the love of Christ and the power of the Spirit. But we must not abdicate the present, for it is in the present that God’s plan is lived.

To be “in Christ” means more than to say we invite Christ into our hearts. To be “in Christ” means that we surrender ourselves to him, and to God’s plan for us. To be in Christ carries with it responsibility.  We must choose to receive the gospel message, to be joined in Christ, and to follow in his will. We are called, and chosen, to do something, for kingdom work in God’s plan. And we are responsible for our decisions.

We are called to live holy and blameless lives of service to God. Now holy does not mean what we think of – someone who is self-righteous, or who is off in the clouds. To be holy is to be set apart for God, and to grow more like Christ daily, through the action of the Holy Spirit in us. When we identify ourselves as those who are “in Christ”, by calling ourselves Christians, we are saying we are holy, set apart for God by virtue of our belonging to Christ. Being Christian does not mean saying certain words that ensure entry to heaven. It is not about where we go when we die. Being Christian is about living in relationship with God, in the present and into eternity, through relationship with Jesus Christ. Being in Christ means living as the children of God in this world. Being in Christ means surrender.

I invite you to surrender yourselves to God’s plan. Please take out your hymnal and turn to page 607. Join me in a covenant prayer, as John Wesley asked his congregations to do periodically.

Please pray with me:

Dear God, help me to be a part of your plan. Help me to love you. Thank you for loving us. Amen.  

Scripture Readings

For your daily devotion; Week of 07-12– 2009

Ephesians 1

Jeremiah 29:11-14

Psalm 96

Mark 4:21-34

Luke 12:22 - 34

Romans 8:18 -39

Revelation 21:1-7

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Sunday's Sermon - July 05, 2009

In Our Weakness, His Strength
2 Corinthians 12: 1 – 10

Our message today comes from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. Interestingly, this passage shows Paul’s humanity. He starts out with a bit of sarcasm, “It is necessary to boast.” – we see a sarcastic tone off and on throughout this second letter to the Corinthians, and we need to recognize it for what it is! In this letter Paul is defending himself against some who have intervened in the church at Corinth, claiming power superior to his, claiming, perhaps some superior visions or inspiration. Paul is not comfortable with defending himself, or with boasting, and so uses the device of sarcasm. In chapter 3 he asked, “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again?” Later he asked the hearers to bear with him in a little foolishness; and in 11:19, delivers a barb to the Corinthians, “For you gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves!” Now, in chapter 12, he says “it is necessary to boast; nothing is to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.” And so, Paul claims his position with the Corinthian Church, describing his own ecstatic experience, a vision perhaps, but even so, disguising his boast in the third person.

He has spoken earlier in this letter of his work with the church in Corinth, of how he earned his own way while working with them, practicing his trade of tent-making even while preaching the gospel and leading the church. But now he turns to a truly strange boast – a mystical experience he can only speak of in the third person!  It appears to have been something like a vision, a moment of revelation, and it was very meaningful to Paul, for he remembered the day it happened, even some fourteen years later. Such an experience, such a time of seeing heaven, of knowing the intimate presence of God, he thinks, might have made him ecstatic, or vain –

But, Paul says he was prevented from being vain, because he was given a “thorn in the flesh”, something that tormented him. He considered it to be a messenger of Satan. What in the world is he talking about? Most commentators agree that it was some kind of illness or disability, perhaps something noticeable that impeded his effectiveness in ministry.  It was bad enough, and he suffered enough, that he prayed for it to be removed – three times. And yet, he says, the thorn was not removed. Whatever the disability was, Paul had to live with it. Given those circumstances, would you or I be angry with God, thinking he had not answered our prayers?

I was a cancer nurse for many years, and during that time I met a lot of people who prayed for healing, for themselves or a loved one. Most people understand that sometimes God answers that prayer with physical healing, but sometimes God answers that prayer by giving them the strength to get through today, or heals a broken relationship, which is its own kind of miracle, or even reconciles a wandering soul. But some, when their illness, or thorn, was not removed – blamed themselves for not having enough faith, or the patient for not being “positive” enough, or even doubted that God existed, because he had not answered that particular prayer.  I am reminded then of Christ, who prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and yet the cup was not removed, and of Paul, praying for the thorn to be removed, and yet it was not. He continued to endure this particular suffering.

But God did answer Paul’s prayer – God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” God’s grace is sufficient for us, for God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.

When things are going well, when we have all the skills and strength needed, when we believe we can do quite well on our own, thank you – at those times we don’t even know we need God. When life is all roses and rainbows, we rarely even think to stop and thank God; we think we are making the roses to grow and the rainbows to stretch across the sky. We are mighty in our vanity!

But when we are weak, we rely on God, on the work of the indwelling Spirit within us – we are more aware of God’s grace. And the fact is, God knows our weakness – and God will use it, if we can recognize it, be open and honest about it, and allow God to use us.

I was a cancer nurse, but when I was diagnosed with breast cancer myself, and returned to work after treatment, I wouldn’t tell my patients. I said it was because I had an early diagnosis and my treatment was less involved than theirs, but I think really it was because I did not want to open myself to them, did not want to be vulnerable, weak, to them. Later, when I was still working as a nurse but in seminary, I began to tell patients my own story, and found that it made me more effective in my nursing, not less! Now, God uses that “weakness” of mine all the time! Women know I have “been there” and they can talk about their fears and their triumphs with me. They don’t need someone who has all the answers; they need someone who has been there, and can be present with them. In God’s grace, he uses my weakness to give others strength.

There is a song that says when we come to the end of ourselves, we find God. I think to a great extent that is true. When we find that there is more to be done than it is in our power to do, when we have our own thorn, that will not go away, no matter how long and hard we pray, then we need God – when life has beaten us low, it is then that we can recognize and apply God’s sovereign grace.

Paul says, “I am weak” and is not cured, but is left to wade in the swamp of his weakness. But he does not drown in those waters because of a divine promise – God knows! When Paul has a vision of paradise he knows that he doesn’t know everything, but God does – God knows.

God knows about Paul’s thorn, and yet does not remove it, but God does answer Paul’s prayer. God assures him by saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God tells Paul that strength will come right in the middle of weakness.

And so, Paul says, “Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” When I am weak in myself, I am strong in God’s strength.

Last fall I had hip replacement surgery, and I was about as weak as I have ever been, in need of care myself. The people of Saint Paul’s, where I was serving then, helped me through that in remarkable ways – they sent cards, prepared meals, cleaned my house, even came to the rehab center to help me. I had always been the caregiver, now I had to accept care myself! I had to give up control and let others take care of me. I was completely weak and vulnerable, and for a person who has been fiercely independent, that was hard. But in that vulnerability, God worked; he used those visits, and those times, to allow me to do ministry in long visits that I would never have had the luxury to indulge in otherwise. One of the ways in which we allow God to be strong is to allow ourselves to be vulnerable. We have to admit our own need for help, our need for God’s strength, and for the support of the community.

Sometimes the support we need is not physical, but spiritual. Most of the time I trust God to take care of tomorrow, trust God totally – faith is my strongest spiritual gift - but occasionally, I need to be reminded – my faith needs a little help. On one of those occasions, while I was in seminary, I was talking with one of my professors, actually, weeping in his office would be a more apt description. He reached into his desk and pulled out a paper, wrote something on it, signed it, and handed it to me. It was a certificate; he had filled in my name and his signature. It said, “Until such time as Joyce has the strength to get by on her own faith, she is hereby entitled to borrow some of mine.” We all need to borrow a little faith now and then. We need Christian community around us, and we need friends who are willing to loan us a little faith when ours gets a little weak. Do you have friends with whom you can be that vulnerable? Are there friends who will loan you a little faith when you need it? Are there people with whom you can be less than perfect?

That perfection thing was a hard one for me – I spent much of my life trying to be perfect. Let me tell you, so you don’t have to try, it doesn’t work! My parents didn’t believe in praising children, so I always thought I was disappointing them, even though later I learned that they were actually proud of my accomplishments during those years. As a wife and mother, I thought if I read the right books, applied the right theories to those relationships, then they would be perfect – I would have a perfect marriage and perfect children. Now, I love my children dearly, but they were not perfect, thank goodness! The problem was, when I tried to be perfect, and failed, what I did was to build some sort of defense, a wall – to withdraw, or blame someone else for my imperfection. I had a lot of walls to tear down when I began my journey with God!

I hope you are not disappointed to learn that I am not perfect, right here on my first week with you! But somehow, God always seems to work through my weakest times, for in my weakness, he is strong.

There is no way we can be perfect people, on our own strength – but relying on God’s strength, on the power of the Holy Spirit within, we can move on to perfection. We Methodists call the work of the Spirit that helps us to be better each day Sanctifying Grace, our moving on, Sanctification. We rely, not on ourselves, not on our own strength, not on our own power, or our own perfection, but on the power of the Holy Spirit working within us. In our weakness, God makes us strong.

As a church, as well, it is not our own strength that empowers us, but God’s.  Through the years, and around the world today, it is the persecuted church that has grown like wild-fire. What is required is that we follow God’s will. He has a plan and a purpose for the church, for this church; if we follow God then we will be empowered in his strength to do the work of God in this place, in this time. We will be the Body of Christ in the world. Let us step forward, in great faith, in his strength rather than our own, making disciples for the transformation of the world!

Please pray with me:

Dear God, in our weakness, give us strength; empower us to discern and to fulfill your will in this place, in this time. Amen.

Scripture Readings

For your daily devotion; Week of 07-05– 2009

2 Corinthians 3:1 - 6

2 Corinthians 4: 7 – 12

2 Corinthians 11: 1 – 11

2 Corinthians 12: 1 – 10

Ephesians 6: 10 – 20

Philippians 3: 1 – 11

Philippians 3: 12 – 4:1

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