Unworthy?

1 Corinthians 11:27-33

27Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. 28Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. 30For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. 32But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. 33So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation. About the other things I will give instructions when I come.

            As a pastor, it is important to be able to remember names.  I read this week about a pastor’s spouse that found this task a little difficult.  A new couple was coming to the church, and she decided that she could remember their names because they were the same as a couple from a popular children’s story.

            After the service, the pastor’s spouse was saying goodbye to the couple and she said, “Now you be careful going up that hill, but I bet you get that all the time.”  The couple just smiled and left quietly.

            Later, the pastor asked her what that was all about.  “Jack and Jill went up the hill… You know!”

            “Sure,” said the pastor, “but what does that have to do with Dick and Jane?”

            Remembering is important.  We need to remember to pay our bills, take our vitamins, and send birthday cards to our relatives.  And if you are like me, you probably find it a lot easier to remember something if you have a bit of a reminder.

            Now I don’t wish to diminish the significance of the Lord’s Supper, or Communion, but it is indeed a reminder of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  As Jesus gave the words of institution to his disciples at the Last Supper, he told them, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

Later in the service this morning we will be partaking in this act of remembrance.  As I was preparing for this sermon, I found that there are a lot of stories circulating on the internet about people that are “afraid” to take communion in their church.  They are afraid because of what Paul has to say in this passage of scripture.  Just look at the first three verses from our scripture this morning, “27Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. 28Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.”

            In an email that I sent out earlier in the week, I encouraged us all to “examine ourselves” so that we do not take the bread and the cup in an unworthy manner.  As I read storied of people who were afraid to take communion, they kept coming back to this passage because they were not sure if they were worthy of participating because of they were not perfect.  They had impure thoughts, maybe they told a lie or two.  And then you get to verse 29 and it says that all who eat and drink without discerning the body will eat and drink judgment against themselves.  If you look at that in the KJV, it says that they eat and drink damnation upon themselves!  I would be afraid to take communion as well!

            Okay, so if you can’t take communion if you are a sinner, who then can take communion?  Not I.  Now I do believe that there is some merit to taking time to reflect on your relationship with God and with your fellow human beings before you take communion.  This story is a little different, but Jesus tells us in his Sermon on the Mount, that if you are making a sacrifice and you remember that there is something between you and a brother or sister, you are to leave your sacrifice there on the altar and go and make things right.  Worshipping God while fighting with your neighbor is not pleasing to God.  So yes, make sure things are good between you and God and your neighbor before taking communion.  Make sure that things are good between you and God and your neighbor often, regardless of when you partake of the bread and cup!  But that is really not what this passage is saying when Paul is talking about participating in the Lord’s Supper in an inappropriate or unworthy manner.

            One of the problems with our modern Bibles is that we cut them up into short sections (Because we in the 21^st century have very short attention spans?).  In its original form, the Bible was not broken up into chapters and verses.  It wasn’t until the early 13^th century that the Bible was broken up into chapters and verses so that people could use these chapters and verses when they wanted to refer to them.  Think about it, when Jesus quotes the Hebrew Bible, he never says, “Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2 tell us, ‘The Sprit of the Lord is upon me…’”  Luke’s Gospel simply tells us that he read from the scroll of Isaiah where it says…

            I am thankful for the chapter and verse references in our Bibles.  They help a lot.  Also helpful are the little subheadings found in our Bibles that I believe are put there by the publishers of our Bibles.  That is why they are different from Bible to Bible.  Chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians in my Bible (NRSV) has four subheadings: Head Coverings, Abuses at the Lord’s Supper, The Institution of the Lord’s Supper, and Partaking of the Supper Unworthily. 

            As I said, these subheadings are helpful for us to get a bit of an understanding of what each section is talking about.  This is very helpful when you are skimming the Bible, trying to find a specific verse.  “Where is the section in the Bible about the sheep and the goats?”

            But these subheadings also provide a stumbling block to understanding the scriptures.  Just like today, I asked the worship leader to begin reading our text at verse 27.  But if you really want to understand what Paul is saying, you need to go back another 10 verses to verse 17.  If you want to understand a Bible verse, you need to read it in its original context.  In fact, I would say that in order to understand a Bible verse, you need to read it in context of the entire Bible.  A fun phrase that helps us to remember this is, “A text without a context is a pretext.”  (Dictionary.com defines a pretext as “something that is put forward to conceal a true purpose or object.”)  So we need to go back to verse 17 to understand what Paul is talking about when he says that anyone that eats or drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment upon themselves, which I will get to after a brief illustration.

This story reminds me of when I was in High School.  I went to a small school of about 400 students.  Our lunch periods were not divided by class, meaning that freshman ate at the same time as the seniors.  My freshman year I remember very clearly the seniors, who seemed much bigger at the time, always cutting in line.  There was no written rule, but it seemed like we were destined to eat according to our class year at the school.

I have never been one to make a fuss about things, so I always just kind of let this go.  But it would really bother me on my favorite day of the week, which was pizza day.  School lunches cost $1.25 and you could purchase an extra helping of the main course for $.75.  So for $2.00, you could eat pretty well.

So these seniors would cut in line with their $2.00 in hand and purchase an extra piece of pizza.  Then when the lowly freshman got to the front of the line, we got whatever was left.  And I remember that my school had a frequent menu option known as “Whatizit on a bun”.  I always thought that name was peculiar because if those cooking it didn’t know what it was, there was no way that I would be able to figure it out!  No, this was actually their way of using up whatever breaded meat product was left over at the end of the week.  So you didn’t know if you were getting pork, chicken, fish, or beef.

I saw this as an injustice!  The seniors got an extra portion of the prized food and the freshman got whatizit on a bun.  And as I thought about this experience from my youth, I thought of two ways that this injustice could have been made even worse.  The first would be if there was no food left at all for the freshman, if we didn’t even get the whatizit on a bun.  The second was if this practice was being carried out by people who are claiming to be following Christ.

Verses 17-22 tell the story of how those in the Corinthian church have been practicing the Lord’s Supper.  In the early church (and in some churches today), the Lord’s Supper was not just a bite of a cracker and a thimble of grape juice.  They would bring food together at an agreed upon location, and they would sit and eat together.  This shared meal was held frequently in remembrance of Jesus. 

However, Paul says that there was division among the people; division likely along the socio-economical lines.  The rich people would bring the most food and drink and therefore they thought that this meant that they got to eat and drink more than those that were not able to bring as much.  Paul’s argument was that in enforcing these socio-economic divisions within the church, the people were not really observing the Lord’s Supper.  They weren’t observing the Lord’s Supper because they were not doing this as a way of remembering Christ.  To remember Christ wasn’t just to look back and reminisce.  To remember Christ means to live as he lived.

Paul then goes on to tell the church at Corinth the origins of the Lord’s Supper.  And this passage from 1 Corinthians is believed to be one of if not the oldest recording of the original Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians would have been written before the Gospel accounts).  Paul says twice that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper as a way of remembering him. 

It does not matter to me what you believe about the Lord’s Supper.  You may believe that Jesus is physically present in the bread and cup, you might believe that he is spiritually present, or symbolically present.  You might believe that the sharing of the elements is the administration of the grace of God.  Regardless of what your theology of the Lord’s Supper is, you cannot deny that Paul understood this practice as something that was to be done by the followers of Jesus as a way of remember who Christ was and what he accomplished.

So what Paul is saying here is something like this.  “Are you really remembering our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who came preaching the Good News to the poor and marginalized when you continue to enforce the boundaries between the rich and the poor?  Are you truly remembering Jesus and the sacrifice that he made, laying down his own body so that we might truly have life when you are not willing to sacrifice a little bread and wine for your brothers and sisters in need?”

This is what Paul means by eating and drinking in an unworthy manner.  All of this talk about eating and drinking in an unworthy manner is sandwiched within this conversation about making sure that there is enough for everyone.  Just look at verses 33 and 34 and it is clear.  Paul begins by talking about not sharing with those in need and he ends with not sharing with those in need.

I recently read that the Greek word that we translate as unworthily (anaxious) is an adverb, not an adjective.  This means that it is describing an action, not a person.  Who is unworthy to take communion?  Everyone, because nobody has earned that privilege.  We are giving that privilege.  Who takes communion in an inappropriate way?  Anyone who does so in a way that is inconsistent with the very person who instituted this practice.  If you take communion in a way that does not celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, they you are doing so in an unworthy manner.

The rest of our text makes better sense in this context.  Verse 29 tells us, “For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.”  What does it mean to discern the body?  Well Paul often uses the phrase “the body” or “the body of Christ” to refer to the church, which is people, not a building.  So all who eat and drink without first thinking about the rest of the people in church are eating and drinking judgment upon themselves because God and everyone else can see that they are clearly not remembering Christ in this. 

Verse 30 tells us that for this reason many are weak and ill and that some have even died.  I always assumed that this was talking about those that were taking communion in an unworthy way; that God was punishing them by making them weak or sick or even taking their lives.  But maybe, just maybe Paul is saying that it is the poor, the needy, and the hungry that have gotten weak, ill, and died because the rich have not shared with them.  Remember what Paul says in verse 21, some are getting stuffed with food and drunk on wine while others go hungry.  Maybe, just maybe, eating and drinking in an unworthy way is what we as Christians do when we splurge knowing very well that there are others in need.  Maybe Paul is saying, “Don’t claim to do this in remembrance of Christ if you aren’t willing to follow him and give of your abundance.”

That need is very clear to all of us this week.  At about 5:14 on Tuesday, the 12 of Januar7, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere.  Early estimates coming out of Haiti were that over 100,000 people were dead and over 3 million people affected by the earthquake, either dead, injured, or homeless (CNN.com). 

We have seen the pictures and heard the stories.  And we can ask questions all day long as to why God would allow these things to happen.  Believe me, I want to know the answer to that question.  But perhaps the more helpful question for us today needs to be, “How are we as followers of Jesus Christ to respond to such an enormous tragedy?”

A wise man once said, “For true evangelical faith…cannot lay dormant; but manifests itself in all righteousness and works of love; it…clothes the naked; feeds the hungry; consoles the afflicted; shelters the miserable; aids and consoles all the oppressed; returns good for evil; serves those that injure it; prays for those that persecute it.” (Menno Simons, 1539).  My intention is not to try to guilt you into giving money to Haiti today.  But I am going to remind you that as we remember Christ through the Lord’s Supper, that we cannot do this in remembrance of him if we do not remember his teachings in the way we live.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has already designated $1,000,000 for relief efforts in Haiti.  I strongly encourage you that if you feel called to give, consider giving through MCC.  I am a big supporter of MCC, not because it is a Mennonite organization, but because it is a good organization.  MCC has some of the lowest overhead costs (between 15-18%) among non-profit organizations.  This means that of every dollar that you give to MCC, 85 cents of that dollar is sent to help those in need.  We can also assemble relief kits that will go to those that need essential items like soap, towels, and blankets.  My friends, we don’t have to give to MCC, but I don’t think that we can just sit back and do nothing and say that we are remembering Christ today.  (Check out the website for the American Institute of Philanthropy www.charitywatch.org for a rating of nonprofits.)

Let us examine ourselves today as we remember the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord.  Is our life a testimony to the life of Jesus Christ?  Is this practice consistent with who Jesus has called us to be?  May it be so.

Unsurpassable Worth

1 John 4:7-21

7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

14And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

17Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

While on a road trip, an elderly couple stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch.  After finishing their meal, they left the restaurant and resumed their trip.  When leaving, the elderly woman unknowingly left her glasses on the table and she didn’t miss them until they had been driving about twenty minutes.  By then, to add to the aggravation, they had to travel quite a distance before they could find a place to turn around in order to return to the restaurant to retrieve her glasses.

All the way back, the elderly husband became the classic grouchy old man.  He fussed and complained and scolded his wife relentlessly during the entire return drive. The more he chided her the more agitated he became. He just wouldn’t let up one minute.  To her relief, they finally arrived at the restaurant.  As the woman got out of the car and hurried inside to retrieve her glasses, the old geezer yelled to her, “While you’re in there, you might as well get my hat and the credit card.”

            I tell this joke about growing older because I recently turned thirty years old.  It was a difficult age to turn.  I didn’t feel any different on the morning of December 29^th than I had the evening of December 28^th, but that number that reveals to the world how many trips I have taken around this earth changed.  No longer was I in my twenties.  My wife was smart enough to know that I didn’t want to make a big deal over my thirtieth birthday, even though she wouldn’t let it go by unnoticed.  My parents made the trip from Ohio and surprised me, and it wonderful to see them.  And it also reinforced the fact that this birthday was indeed a big one.

It is safe to say that things have changed with my body over the years.  My hairline has receded and my waistline has expanded.  The joints creek and muscles hurt.  I am in every way thirty and I am trying to embrace my age.

But why do we fear these big changes in our lives?  Why is thirty, forty, fifty and so on scary to us?  Why do we fear hitting these milestones in our lives?  I remember when I was just a little guy being excited about turning five.  Then, when people asked me how old I was, I could simply hold up one hand will all of my fingers extended.  Ten meant that I had witnessed a full decade on this earth.  Sixteen meant I could drive, eighteen meant I could vote, buy handguns, tobacco, and lottery tickets.  Twenty-one meant that I could buy alcohol.  But after twenty-one, most people stop counting their birthdays.  Instead, we begin to fear them.

I think this is because our society glorifies youth, beauty, and independence.  Look at most of the ads on television or in newspapers and magazines, and what do you see?  Unless that ad is specifically targeting an older demographic, you will see people in their early twenties.  And these ads are promising us that if only you will purchase whatever they are trying to sell, you too will become young, beautiful and independent.  That’s why I use Nivea for Men!

             No wonder we fear growing older.  Once we hit thirty, our society tells us that we have less worth than we did only a few short years ago.  That is why people spend thousands of dollars on cosmetic surgery.  We are afraid that, no we know that when we lose our youth, beauty, and independence, that the rest of our society looks at us as if we are not worth as much as we were when we were in our twenties.

            How diametrically opposed is this to the teaching of Jesus!  I love the way that pastor Greg Boyd puts it when he says that God has ascribed to us unsurpassable worth.  It doesn’t matter how old you are, it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, tall or short, thin or chubby, smart or not so smart, God says that you are worth more to him than you can even begin to imagine.

            In our scripture for this morning, John writes “7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.”

            God is love.  Not God has love, or God is able to love, or God loves sometimes.  Love is the material of which God is made up of.  God is comprised of love.  And God made love known to us by sending his only Son to the earth so that we might live through him.  God has ascribed to us unsurpassable worth.  We are worth so much that God came to this earth for us, to give us a new life that will continue throughout eternity.

We start to notice a theme of love coming from the writings of John.  In his gospel John writes in chapter 15:12-13 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  God has ascribed to us unsurpassable worth and we are to do the same to others.  As God has loved us, we are to love one another.  And then John goes on to say something really quite radical.  He says that the greatest way to express your love is by laying down your life for someone else.

Now I have always read this scripture as saying that there is no greater love than to be willing to die for someone else.  And I do believe that is true and that many of the early apostles and early Anabaptists gave the ultimate sacrifice by laying down their lives for Christ just as Christ laid down his life for us.  Perhaps there is no greater privilege than being able to die for your Lord or die for your friend.  But that is not what this passage is saying.

The reason that this passage is a little difficult to understand is because, like most of the New Testament, this passage was written in Greek.  And you may remember that there are a number of Greek words that we translate into the English word love.  And in the same way, there are a couple of Greek words that we translate as life.  The first one is the word bios. 

Bios is where we get the term “Biology” from, which means the study of life.  Bios is a reference to the time during which we are alive, from conception to death.  The next term is zoe.  Zoe is the term that Jesus uses frequently when he refers to eternal life.  Zoe is the part of us that lives on even after death.  But the word that John is using here when he says about laying down one’s life for another is psuche.

Psuche is related to the word psyche, from which we get the word psychology.  A good way to look at psuche is to describe it as your personality.  John is saying that there is no greater love than to lay down your personality or your personal preferences for another.

The best example of this laying down your psuche for another that I can think of is found in the love between a mother and a child.  Mothers are people and they surely have preferences just like any other human being.  But I remember growing up that my mother was always willing to let her children do things that were maybe not consistent with her preferences.  For instance, mom would let us listen to the kind of music that we wanted to listen to.  My mother liked “Oldies” music.  But mom let us choose the music that we wanted to listen to as she chauffeured us around in the brown van.  We went through our pop music stage, we went through our rap stage, and we went through our country stage, and mom went through it with us.

I remember when we were trying to get into better shape and mom cooking boneless/skinless chicken breasts and sweet potatoes for us every night for a couple of months.  She didn’t do that because she liked chicken breasts that much.  She never did care for country music and I doubt that she listens to it all that much today.  But she was laying down her preferences and her personality out of love for her children.

Jesus did the same thing.  Do you not think that Jesus would have preferred to stay in heaven where there is no pain, no anger, no sorrow, and no tears?  Of course!  But Jesus laid down that life and his preferences to come to this earth so that we might be given life (zoe) and shown how to live by kingdom ethics.  And then Jesus paid the ultimate price by laying down not only his psuche, but also laying down his bios.  That is how much Jesus loves us.  We have unsurpassable worth in the eyes of our creator.  Even after we turn thirty years old.

Well John goes on in our scripture to say in 11 “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.”  Then he says it a little more thoroughly and forcefully at the end of this section of scripture in verses 19-21, “We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”

You cannot love God without loving others.  Just as God has ascribed to us unsurpassable worth, so too must we ascribe to others unsurpassable worth.  Unfortunately this is not always the case.

So when you turn thirty in the commonwealth of Virginia, you need to renew your driver’s license.  I forgot this and allowed my license to expire.  So on my second trip to the DMV with my passport in hand, I took a seat and looked through the book that I had brought along while watching the other folk that had come in to spend their afternoon waiting on their number to be called.

I was particularly drawn to this one family.  And I really don’t understand why the entire family went to the DMV that day; I guess it could be seen as a fun family outing.  But there they were, dad with his long greasy hair, eighties rock band t-shirt, and I really couldn’t tell which had more holes, his shirt or his pants.  Then there was the mother.  I’ve got a bit of a redneck side to me, but this lady looked like she was straight out of a movie.  And best of all, when she turned around, I saw something that almost made me laugh.  She had a Skoal ring in her back pocket.  Now that’s a classy lady.

Then I saw the child.  He was cute, dressed in his bib overalls.  But as I looked at him, I felt sorry for him.  I thought to myself, “That poor kid doesn’t have a chance.  His parents shouldn’t have ever been allowed to reproduce.”

I grew up on a farm and I enjoyed studying genetics in college.  We learned how to select genetically superior animals and mate them to other genetically superior animals so that their offspring would have certain desirable traits.  In the beef industry when females are born, the best animals are chosen to be bred to produce the next generation of cattle.  The other females are raised for human consumption.  It makes good sense in breeding animals.  You want your best to come together to produce superior offspring.

Unfortunately this practice has not always stayed within the field of animal genetics.  In the human realm we call this practice eugenics.  Eugenics is defined as the practice of improving human genetics.  And there are a number of ways that this is done.  For instance, if someone is born with an inherited physical defect such as hemophilia, that person would not reproduce.  The thought process goes like this: only those that have desirable characteristics should have offspring.  Then these undesirable characteristics will disappear from humanity.

Eugenics gained a lot of popularity in the late 19^th and early 20^th century.  And our fair city of Staunton has the unfortunate history of being the home to a major proponent of eugenics.  As you drive into the city on 250 from the east heading west, just before you come to the Sheets and Lowes you will see a large brick structure on the grounds of the Frontier Culture Museum.  This is the former home of the DeJarnette Center, a mental hospital named after Joseph DeJarnette, the former director of what is now know as Western State mental health hospital.

DeJarnette believed in compulsory sterilization of the mentally ill.  He had many of his patients rendered sterile against their will so that they could not have children, whether they wanted to or not.  DeJarnette was such an advocate of eugenics that once when he was testifying before a committee on the advantages of eugenics for the progression of humankind and they chose to disagree with him, he said something like, “If you don’t see the advantage of eugenics, then perhaps you too should be rendered sterile so that you can’t reproduce.”  Thankfully eugenics lost a lot of public support following World War II and the Nazi regime’s attempt to practice eugenics on a large scale.   

The reason that eugenics bothers me so much is because when we tell someone that they should not reproduce because their offspring will be inferior, we are not ascribing unsurpassable worth to all people.  Instead we are saying that some people are important and some people are not.  We want more people like this guy, and less people like you.  And when I thought to myself as I sat at the DMV that the couple next to me should not have reproduced, I might have been joking to myself.  But I was not ascribing unsurpassable worth to them.  I was judging them, and I was judging myself as being better than them.  And I felt the need to repent for that as I lay in bed that evening.  God ascribes unsurpassable worth to all people, and by definition no person is considered to be any better than another.  No life is more important than another.

This is why I take a position of being “consistently pro-life”.  I believe that God ascribes unsurpassable worth on the child in the womb and I believe that God ascribes unsurpassable worth to the Afghani soldier.  I believe God ascribes unsurpassable worth on the homeless man who needs a medication that he cannot afford and I believe that God ascribes unsurpassable worth to the serial killer sitting on death row.  And because God ascribes unsurpassable worth on these people, so must I.  As John wrote, “Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars.”  And, “those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”

So as I stand before you today, I am not ashamed to say that I am thirty years old.  And perhaps I am not as young, beautiful, or independent as I once was, but I have unsurpassable worth in the eyes of my creator.  My Lord chose to lay down his life out of love for me, out of love for you, and out of love for all of the world.  Not just for the young, beautiful, and independent.  Not just for rich and athletic.  But for the people that you see at the DMV, for those that our government tells us we are to hate, for those that hate us.  May we ascribe unsurpassable worth to them just as our God has done.

Come to the light

Isaiah 60:1-6

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 2For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. 3Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms. 5Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. 6A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

            I was doing some biblical research for my sermon this week when I had a bit of an epiphany.  I was reading through Matthew and came to the story of the Three Wise Men, or the Magi as the NIV refers to them.  We don’t know much about the Magi.  We know that they came from the east following a star.  And we know that they came to Jerusalem and asked where they could find this person who was born king of the Jews.  And as I read that familiar scripture, I realized that the Magi were not Three Wise Men, they were Three Wise Women.  If they had been men, they never would have asked for directionsJ.

            This Wednesday much of the church around the world will celebrate Epiphany.  Epiphany is traditionally said to be the day that the Magi, or the Wise Men, showed up in Bethlehem to worship and present gifts to Jesus.  Now to be honest, I don’t have a clue as to why we celebrate Epiphany on January 6^th, but we do, and that’s okay.  In reality, the Wise Men could have shown up anywhere from the day of Jesus’ birth to two years later.  The Bible isn’t clear as to the exact date when they showed up.  And since we are being honest here this morning (always a good thingJ), we don’t know that Jesus was born on December 25^th, so why not celebrate Epiphany on January 6^th?  It’s as good a day as any other day, and there is a 1/365 chance that we got it right.

            The point of Christmas and Epiphany isn’t so much when it happened, but that it happened.  The word epiphany comes from the Greek word epiphanaia, which means manifestation or appearance.  We often hear people say, “I just had an epiphany” meaning that something finally makes sense to them.  They had a realization and something that was confusing is now clear, as if it is sitting right in front of them.  That’s an epiphany.  And that is why we call the day on which we observe the Wise Men arriving to meet the baby Jesus Epiphany.  The very thing that they had been searching for, traveling across the vast desert, now lies before them in a manger: God in human flesh.

            Now if we look at our text this morning from Isaiah, and we didn’t know that this was in the Old Testament and written over 500 years before Jesus was born, we might think that this text is describing the Epiphany.  Verse one speaks about the light that has come.  Then in verse three we find that nations will come to the light, kings will be drawn to the brightness of the light.  They will come from far away.  And verse six tells us that they will bring gold and frankincense.  Again, if we didn’t know any better, we might think that this was talking about the Epiphany, and maybe, in a prophetic sort of way, it is.

            Our scripture from Isaiah comes from a period known as the Babylonian exile.  The Israelites were living in the land that God had provided for their forefathers about 600 years earlier when this mighty nation came in and defeated them, taking the land that God had provided for them and carrying off the Israelites as slaves and captives, spreading them throughout the countryside so that they could not band together to rise up against the powerful Babylonians.

            But Isaiah is bringing good news to those in exile.  He is saying that their light has come to them.  And that is Isaiah’s way of saying “God is here with you and bringing you back to the Promised Land.”

            This has been our theme for the last six weeks as we have been celebrating Advent.  We have been looking at the scriptures that tell us to be ready because God is about to break into our world and set things right.  And our scripture for this morning is telling us that God has broken into this dark world as a beam of light.  The very same God who created us and all of creation, the very same God who out of love gave us free will, the very same God that made a covenant with his people and promised to never leave them nor forsake them has once again shown his people his steadfast love.  They will return to the Promised Land.

And verses 3-6 tell us how all nations will be drawn to the light that is God.  They will come from far and they will come from near.  They will come because of the beautiful light with which God breaks into this dark world.  They will come because the people of Israel are to reflect the light of God to the rest of the world for all to see.

            Now I want to ask you all a very personal question.  How many of you looked in a mirror this morning?  I would guess that most of us at least take a glance at ourselves on the way out of the bathroom to make sure our hair isn’t standing on end or that there isn’t any of our morning bagel in our teeth.  I’m not suggesting that we be vain and spend hours looking in the mirror in the morning, but it is good to at least take a peak at yourself before heading out the door.

            But have you ever really thought about how a mirror works?  Have you ever sat down and pondered why you can see yourself when you look at that square thing that sits behind your bathroom sink?  I’ll give you a hint.  If you turn out the lights in the bathroom and cover the windows, you won’t be able to see anything in the mirror.  Now, granted, you won’t be able to see anything, because it is dark.  But even if you could see in the dark, you would not have a reflection in the mirror.

            Mirrors are flat, smooth, and shiny.  And because they are flat, smooth, and shiny, light waves bounce off them and back toward our eyes.  The light comes from its source, bounces off us, hits the mirror, and then enters our eyes.  You didn’t know it was so complicated, did you?

            Well in our scripture, Israel is called to be a mirror, reflecting the light of God to the rest of the world.  Israel is to be flat, smooth, and shiny so that all of the world can see God’s image in them.  Just like you see your own image reflected in a mirror when you look into it, the nations are to see God’s image reflected to them when they look at the Israelites.  That is why the nations, or the gentiles, will be drawn to Israel.  Not because of the beauty of Israel, not because people think the Israelites are cool, hip, fashionable, or trendy.  The nations will be drawn to Israel because they are beautifully reflecting the image of God.  We could say that they are to be an epiphany, a manifestation, of God.  The rest of the world was to look at Israel and say, “Wow, I get it!  Now it makes sense!  That is how we are to live; caring for the weak, giving to the poor, loving our neighbor.”  Israel is to reflect God’s image to the world as an epiphany of God.

            Okay, so let’s go back to the mirror thing for a few minutes here.  We have all looked in a mirror at some point of our lives.  Now how many of us have ever been in an amusement park and seen those “Hall of Mirrors” things?  You walk through and there are mirrors that make you short and thick, or tall and thin.  Some make you look far away and some make you look close up.  And some might even make you look upside down!  How do they do these things?  Well, the mirrors in the fun houses have a few of the characteristics of a good mirror, but not all of the characteristics.  These funny mirrors are shiny and smooth, but they are not flat.  And because they are not flat, they distort the image that they are reflecting.

            Such is the case with Israel.  They were given the task of reflecting the light of God to all nations, and they failed.  Instead of reflecting a good image, they reflected a distorted image.  And this is one of the reasons that Jesus, God in human form, came to the earth.

            Jesus said some pretty powerful and confusing things while on earth.  He said things like, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father,” and “I and the Father are one.”  To a monotheistic group like the Jews, this was either blasphemy and therefore Jesus could be put to death, or it was true.  And we find people that believed both ways.  But when Jesus said “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” he was saying that he perfectly reflected who God is, because he is God in human form.  Because Israel failed to reflect God to all the nations, Jesus came and showed them how to do it perfectly.  And do you know what?  It worked.

            Jesus, who is God in every way, perfect in every way, attracted all sorts of people to him.  Jesus was always spending time with tax collectors, prostitutes, Sadducees, Zealots, the poor, and the poor in spirit.  It is amazing to me that someone who was perfect in every way was able to connect with people who were fallen and sinful and make them want to spend time with him.  He didn’t hold it over them, he loved them.  He reflected God perfectly and he calls his followers to do the same.

            Granted, none of us can reflect God perfectly, but we sure could do better.  As we read through the New Testament, we find that in many ways, the followers of Jesus Christ are to take on the role of reflecting the image of God to the people and nations around them by reflecting the image of Jesus.  And I’ll be the first to admit that I have often failed to reflect a true image of Jesus.  Instead, I tend to reflect a funhouse distorted image of Jesus.

            Jesus teaches us to love our enemy and pray for those that persecute us, yet I still hate.  Jesus tells us to give generously, but I still keep more than my share for myself.  Jesus tells us not to judge, and, you guessed it, I judge.  Even worse, we do things “In the name of Jesus” that seem to be so far outside of what Jesus was teaching.  How absurd is it when we wage war in the name of the Prince of Peace, the one who chose to lay down his life rather than pick up a sword and fight?  How ironic is it when we condemn people to hell because they are not following the one who told us not to judge the speck of sawdust in someone’s eye while we have a plank in our own eye?  How silly is it that we live in million dollar mansions and buy hundred dollar furs and call ourselves followers of a homeless, vagabond preacher who gave up being in heaven to dwell among us for thirty three years, committing himself to a life of poverty though he was the creator of all things.  Are we accurately reflecting the image of Christ?  Are we reflecting his light to the world?  Are we a living, breathing, walking, talking epiphany?

            Now I think I need to point out that we as Christians are doing some things right.  The Staunton/Augusta Church Relief Association last year distributed about $250,000.00 to those in need in our area.  The Valley Mission feeds, clothes, and employs people providing them an opportunity to get their feet under them.  Over $300,000 was raised in October at the annual Mennonite Central Committee Relief Sale and that money will be sent to support people abroad and near by as they seek to help others with economic development in various places throughout the world like my friends Lana and Andy that are working as area representatives in Cambodia working to teach sustainable agricultural practices in a third-world country.  And just yesterday, Sonya and I went to a farewell party for Mark and Sarah as they leave for a three-year term with Virginia Mennonite Missions in Thailand.  These people are offering a cup of cold water in the name of Christ and offering living water that can only come from Christ.  Indeed, they are reflecting the image of Christ to all nations.

            Yes we are doing things right in some ways.  There are times that we do reflect the image of Christ well, and there are times that we give more of a funhouse image to those around us.  I leave you today with a challenge.  When you find yourself doing well and looking a lot like Christ, remember, looking like Christ is never about trying to make yourself look better to others.  Looking like Christ is supposed to show of the beauty of the God who created us and loves us.  Looking like Christ is beautiful and attractive because God is beautiful and attractive.  It’s not about us.  And if we find ourselves reflecting a distorted image of Christ, lets seek to become more Christ-like so that all nations, prostitutes, sinners, and tax collectors, Sadducees, Pharisees, and pastors will see not us, but Christ in us.  On this Epiphany Sunday, may we commit to being an epiphany of Jesus to all nations.

Pregnant with hope

Luke 1:39-56

39In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 46And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” 56And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

Micah 5:2-5a

2But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. 3Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. 4And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; 5and he shall be the one of peace.

A man speaks frantically into the phone to the doctor, “My wife is pregnant, and her contractions are only two minutes apart!”
“Is this her first child?” the doctor queries.
“No, you fool!” the man shouts. “This is her *husband*!”

            It seems to me that having children can bring a lot of emotions to the surface.  As the man in the open joke shared, fear is one of them.  For some, the birth of a child brings about joy, for others, excitement.  For those that have wanted to have children and not been able to, perhaps sadness is an emotion that you experience.  But today I want to focus on an emotion that Mary revealed as she sang her magnificat: Hope.  Mary, though living in difficult times, expresses hope, and I hope that we can learn from Mary that hope is an emotion that we all should be experiencing this Christmas.  Hope in the future, and hope for the here and now.

            Our scripture for today begins by telling us that soon after Mary receives the news that she is going to give birth to the Messiah from the angel Gabriel, she takes off to the hill country of an unnamed Judean town where she entered into the house of Zechariah and her relative Elizabeth.  Now it is impossible for us to know all that went on in the conversation between Mary and Gabriel, but based on what we find in the text, we do not see Gabriel telling Mary that Elizabeth’s son is going to prepare the way for Mary’s son.  The angel simply tells her that Elizabeth is pregnant in her old age.  Furthermore, Elizabeth does not have an encounter with the angel, her husband does.  So this makes this meeting between Mary and Elizabeth even more interesting to me.

            Mary knew that Elizabeth was pregnant, but nothing more than that.  Elizabeth might not have even known that Mary was pregnant.  But our text tells us that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting as she walked in the front door, the baby in her womb leaped for joy.  And Elizabeth speaks to Mary and blesses her and asks in verse 43, “And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?”

            How did Elizabeth know that Mary was carrying the fetal Lord in her womb?  She didn’t have an interaction with an angel, her husband did.  And we don’t have record that he was told that Mary was the one that was going to give birth to the Lord.  And even if Gabriel had revealed this to Zechariah, he wasn’t telling anyone!  Elizabeth knew that Mary was pregnant with the Lord because she was filled with the Holy Spirit (v. 41).  God had gifted her with the insight of what was going to happen and the ladies celebrated what God was doing with them, for them, and through them.  God was giving this older, barren woman a son that would prepare the way for the Messiah.  And God had chosen this young woman Mary, probably no more than 13 years old herself, to be the earthly mother of God’s one and only son.  Indeed, this was reason to celebrate.  The very person that they had been expecting and hoping for their entire life was about to be born.

            I remember when I was probably 13-years-old walking down the road with the neighbor girl having a deep conversation like only 13-year-olds can do.  We were just out for a stroll, making conversation, and somehow our conversation turned to our desires for future generations.  And I remember her telling me that she wanted to have children and she wanted her children to have children.  But she hoped that her grandchildren would never have children because she believed that the world would be such a terrible place to live in by the time her great-grandchildren would be born that she didn’t want them to have to live in that kind of world.

            I don’t know what prompted her to think like this.  Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the movie “Terminator 2” had just come out the previous year, depicting the fall of humanity, having been taken over by machines in the year 2029.  But it was clear that my neighbor did not want her great-grandchildren to have to suffer through a world that had fallen into such a dismal existence.

            Now Mary didn’t live in a world that had been taken over by machines, but she did live in a world that seemed to have fallen into a dismal existence as well.  Rather than machines, Mary lived in a time when the Romans had overtaken the Jewish people, controlled the Promised Land, and had the audacity to tax the Jewish people to fund the Roman Empire’s political system and military dominance.

            But Mary had a different outlook on life than my 13-year-old neighbor did.  Where my neighbor’s outlook on the future was dim, Mary’s outlook was that of hope.  While my neighbor saw despair, hatred, pain, and suffering, Mary saw promise, love, joy, and peace.  Mary saw the weak lifted up, the hungry filled, the poor content.  Mary had this outlook on the future because of what God had done in the past and because of what God had promised to do in the future; a promise that is partially fulfilled by the baby growing in her womb.

            I believe that how we see the future has something to do with how we live today.  It is common during Christmas time to sit around and talk about the good old days.  Sometimes we talk about the good old days when everyone went to church on Sunday and the stores were all closed because everyone was observing a day of rest.  We can talk about how hard it is to be a Christian today and the challenges that we are up against.  I heard a radio program this week where the disc jockey was complaining about how someone trying to sell him a “holiday tree” instead of a Christmas tree.  And some people see these things and say that the world is indeed slipping further and further away from God and maybe closer to some apocalyptic scenario like that depicted in the Terminator movies.  But as for me, I choose not to be a complainer or a reminisce-er.  I choose not to focus on the days of old and talk about how we need to go back to those days.  No, I am a hoper.  Like Mary, I know that there is a lot wrong with the world today.  From violence to poverty, hatred to injustice, our world is far from what God intended for it to be.  But my hope does not rely on returning to a time six decades ago.  My hope is in the promises that God has made that through his son all things will be made new.  And my hope is in the people that God has called out as his people to help bring God’s kingdom to this world.  My hope is in God and in God’s people called the church.

            In less than one month, my first child is due to come into this world.  And if I did not have hope for this world, I don’t believe that I would have the desire to bring human life into this world.  And the reason that I have hope for this world is because God has a plan.  A plan to prosper us and not to hurt us.  Listen to the words of Jeremiah 29:4-14:

⁴ This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” ⁸ Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. ⁹ They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD.

 

¹⁰ This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity.  I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”       

Do you see how this relates?  Jeremiah received this word from God during the Babylonian captivity, around the year 586 BC.  The people of God had been overtaken by another nation, much like they were during Mary’s day.  But God says Fear not!  I am with you.  And though times might be tough and it might seem like I have abandoned you, I have a larger picture in mind.  I will gather my people together and they shall enter into the Promised Land once again.

It seems to me that so many people, so many Christians, seek to get out of this world as quickly as possible.  “Heaven is our home” seems to be the Christian mantra.  And yes, we should anticipate the kingdom that is to come with great joy.  But as God spoke through Jeremiah to the Israelites in exile he told them Don’t just anticipate the day when you are to return to the Promised Land.  Make the most out of what you have today as well.

They are told to build houses, marry and give their children in marriage.  And they are told to seek peace and prosperity in the place where they are.  Again, this is in no way meant to take away from their anticipation of returning to the Promised Land.  But they are to go on living their lives as they are called to live even in this foreign place.

This is a good example of the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God exists in two separate realms: the already and the not yet.  The kingdom of God is the kingdom in which we have our primary citizenship.  While the kingdoms, empires, and nations around us adhere to a different set of rules where the autonomous individual seems to reign supreme, in the kingdom of God, we serve the almighty God and each other.  We love our enemies, pray for those that persecute us, turn the other cheek, and walk the extra mile.  And even though we as human beings are incapable of living a perfect life, we try.

As we lay down for bed at night, I like to lay behind my wife, wrap my arms around her belly, and drift off to sleep.  The reason I wrap my arms around her belly isn’t to gauge her girth.  No, I wrap my arms around her to feel those sudden moves, kicks, and turns taking place in her womb.  I know that there is something real, something alive in there.  And I know that soon this fetus will be a child; a living, breathing creature among us.

Much as this child growing within my wife will be fully known among us, one day the kingdom of God will be fully manifested and known when our king comes back to rule his people.  And when that day comes, there will be no my crying, no more pain, no more hatred.  Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  The lion will lie down with the lamb and will eat straw like the ox.  We will beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.  The kingdom of God is here today as a glimpse of the kingdom of God that will one day be fully known just as those kicks I feel at bedtime reveal a child that shall soon come into the world.

We as the church are called to be those kicks, small examples of what is to come.  And this past week I have experienced little kicks of the kingdom frequently.  On Friday, the 18^th, one of the largest snowfalls I have ever seen blanketed our fine city with about two feet of snow.  Everything was shut down.  There was no mail; there was no church by Sunday.  People couldn’t get out of their driveways or even out their front doors.  And if they did get out of their homes, there was nowhere to go.

But about midday Saturday, people began to shovel their way out of their homes, down their sidewalks, and dig out their cars.  And that is when something amazing happened; that is when I experienced small kicks of the kingdom of God.  Neighbors that I had never spoken to before were now entering into conversations with me like we were old friends.  Strangers grabbed shovels and helped one another find their cars.  Friends checked in with the elderly and homebound to make sure that they were okay and had everything that they needed.

I had to ask myself, “Is this really the same world that my neighbor 17 years ago was fearing?”  What do we have to fear?  Sure, the world is bad at times.  War, famine, genocide, poverty.  We know that things are not perfect, but we have hope and we live hope, and we spread hope.  We hope because we see these little kicks of the kingdom of God, and kingdom that exists in part today and will one day be fully known.

The kingdom of God grows like that child of hope maturing within my wife’s womb.  It starts out slowly and nothing more than two cells combining to make one microscopic organism.  But it grows and develops to the point that everyone knows that it is present.  

We have hope because of what God has done through his son Jesus Christ.  We have hope because of what God is doing through his people today.  And we have hope because of what God will do in the restoration of all things.

Turning to God

Luke 3:7-18

7John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” 10And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

15As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 18So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

Isaiah 12:2-6

2Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. 3With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

4And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. 5Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. 6Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

            I was looking for a Christmas present for my wife this week when I wandered into the department store at the mall.  I found myself at the perfume counter and asked the woman if she had anything that would make a good present for Sonya.  So she pulled out a bottle of $50 perfume.  So I asked if there was anything less expensive.  So she pulls out a $30 bottle.  Again, I ask her if there is anything less expensive, and she pulls out a little bottle that costs $15.

            So I look the lady in the eye and say to her, “Ma’am, I’m going to say this as clearly as I can.  I want to see something very, very cheap.”  She handed me a mirror.

            We as Christians are called to be generous.  Not just with our money, but with our time, with our comfort, with all of our stuff.  But is this really necessary?  Or can we be just as selfish as some of the other people that we see around us everyday?  Today I plan to look at John the Baptist to see how we are called to give generously to those in need out of our desire to follow Christ.

            The text tells us that people were coming out to be baptized by John and how does he greet them?  He calls them a brood of vipers!  “Who warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come?”  I heard this week that John the Baptist perhaps wasn’t the best trained evangelist in the world.  Calling people names like “brood of vipers” is not good for church growth.

            John seems to be saying that these Jews that are coming to him seem to think that they can slide through life, doing whatever they feel like doing, and then say, “Hey, I’m a child of Abraham.  I’m a Jew, a member of God’s chosen people.  What does it matter if I flub up every now and then?  What does it matter if I do the very least possible for God?  I am in a covenant here.”  But John replies by saying your pedigree isn’t good enough.  It doesn’t matter who your parents are, it doesn’t matter where you grew up.  You need to be bearing fruit worthy of repentance.

            “Bearing fruit worthy of repentance” is not a phrase that we use too often in my neck of the woods, so maybe an illustration can help us understand what that loaded phrase means.  Many of us have some experiences growing fruit at our homes.  Marvin’s brother Richard has an apple orchard in the Waynesboro/Stuarts Draft area.  Richard has grown apples for who knows how long.  But this year, because of some health concerns, Richard did not have an apple harvest. 

            When I was told that Richard wasn’t planning on having an apple harvest this year, I assumed that this meant that he was not planning on selling apples this fall.  But Marvin told me that there wouldn’t be any apples to sell.  And I thought out loud, “Won’t the apples grow on their own?  They don’t need to be replanted every year, so wouldn’t the trees just bear fruit whether you wanted them to or not?”

            Marvin explained to me that if Richard doesn’t tend to the apple trees, keeping the weed and bug population down, that there won’t be anything there to harvest.  There will be competition for the nutrients that the apple trees need to grow and produce fruit and there will be competition from the bugs that are quicker to get to those apples than Richard might be.  So if you don’t defeat the competition, there will be no fruit.

            This is what John is saying when he tells those that come to him that they need to be bearing fruit of repentance.  If they just continue to go on as they have been, then the weeds and the bugs in their lives are going to overcome the fruit.  But through repentance, they can eliminate those things that compete for their allegiance to God.  Repentance then becomes the Roundup and the Sevin (the weed killer and insecticide) that eliminates the things competing for your time, money, energy, and faith.

            Repentance is more than just saying, “I’m sorry” or “I was wrong.”  Repentance means changing your ways, making a U-turn.  John is talking about the “fruit of repentance” and just saying that you are sorry and continuing to do the same thing over and over is not bearing fruit.  To say that weeds and bugs hurt an apple tree won’t actually help the tree bear fruit.  To bear the fruit of repentance means that you change something in your life, you eliminate those things that compete with God.  If you eliminate the things that compete with your allegiance to God, then you turn toward God and you will bear fruit.

            John then goes on to give some concrete examples of fruit of repentance.  The people come to him and ask, What should we do?  And John answers, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” The tax collectors came to John and asked what they should do.  He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.”  Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.” (v. 11-14).

            Evidently the people that were coming to John for baptism were people like you and me.  They were people that liked to collect things for themselves.  Human beings like to collect clothes, just look at all of the shoes in my closet that I never wear!  Human beings like to collect food; we have food in our freezer that has been there for over a year.  Human beings like to collect money; savings accounts, 401k’s, CD’s, a coffee can buried in the back yard.  There is no limit to where we can collect our money.  And why do we collect these things?  Because we need them and they are in limited supply.

            Those two factors make food, clothing, and money very tempting to collect.  We need these things and there is only so much of it to go around.  This is an issue of supply and demand.  We all need oxygen, but we don’t save it up in our basement vaults because there is a large amount of oxygen in the air for everyone.  Albino tigers are in short supply, but we don’t need them, so we don’t collect them.  But when we come across things that are in limited in supply and they are things that we need, we tend to collect them and keep them for ourselves.

            So John tells the people that are coming to him for baptism, if you have extra clothes, give them away.  If you have extra food, share it with someone that has none.  Don’t cheat people out of their money, they need money too.  Essentially John is saying two things: 1. Yes, there is only a limited amount of these things available, so we need to share it with others.  And 2. Rather than putting your trust in your own ability to collect and store these items that we all need, put your trust in God to provide the things you need for you.  And those two things are pretty scary to do.

            I remember the first day of college as a wide-eyed eighteen-year-old.  I believe that my first college class ever was an Anatomy and Physiology class.  So nobody knows anybody at the school, and first impressions are important.  You want to get off on the right foot with both your classmates and your professors.

            Every class starts the same way, with the professor handing out the syllabus and explaining the expectations and assignments for the year.  I remember that first day of my first college class as Dr. Greene walked us through our syllabus, a classmate of mine named Brad raised his hand to ask a question.  Brad asked Dr. Greene, “What is the bare minimum that I have to do to get an A in this class?”

            To us students and to the professors, Brad had just been labeled as a slacker.  He wasn’t there for the right reasons.  We wanted a good grade so that he could get a piece of paper after he put in his four years so that he could get a decent job.  Brad wasn’t there to learn; Brad wasn’t there to grow.  Brad wanted to do the very least he possibly could and still get what he ultimately wanted for himself in the end.

            If you really want to get my goat, as we are studying something intense, something challenging, ask me, “Is this really a salvation issue?”  I hear this sometimes when we are talking about issues like we are today such as giving to the poor and needy, pacifism, simple living, creation care, and justice.  When I tell people I try to only drink coffee from places that sell fairly traded coffee beans, or when I tell them that I don’t shop at the world’s largest retailer because they treat employees poorly, and I tell them that I do these things because of my faith in Jesus Christ, sometimes I am asked, “Is that really a salvation issue?”

            The reason that this get’s my goat is because when I hear someone asking if something is really a salvation issue, I often interpret that as them saying, “I really don’t want to have to worry about that.  It is easier to buy the cheapest coffee and not worry about the condition in which the person growing that coffee has to live.  So if my salvation isn’t contingent upon me doing that, then I really don’t think it needs to be an issue.”  It is like my classmate on the first day of college classes that asked our teacher, “What is the bare minimum that I need to do to get an A in this class?”  Only in this case, it is asking God, “What is the bare minimum that I need to do to go to heaven.”  Or the flip side of that coin is asking, “How much can I get away with and still go to heaven?”

            Our relationship as a church to Christ is often compared in the Bible as a bride to a groom.  We as the church are metaphorically “married” to Christ.  In this world I have been married to Sonya for almost 6.5 years.  Now I wouldn’t say that we are perfect and that everyone should try to be like us, but I think we have a pretty healthy relationship.  But imagine how different it would be if I went about being her husband by asking the question, “What’s the very least that I need to do in order for you to stay married to me?”  Or the flip side of that coin, “How much can I get away with and have you stay with me?”  Can I quit my job and lie around the house all day and do nothing?  Can I look at other women and yell, “Hey baby” every time an attractive woman walks by?  How little do I have to do, or how much can I get away with and still have Sonya stay with me?  I think you can see what a bad approach this is toward marriage.  So why would we approach our relationship with Jesus, who is the groom of the church, in that way?  Why would we ask, What is the bare minimum that I have to do to be with you for eternity?

            If I err, may I err on the side of following Christ more than I need to; may I err on the side of doing too much instead of too little.  Because Christianity isn’t just about me going to heaven when I die.  Christianity isn’t about me, it is about God and what God wants to do through me.  And yes, by opening myself up to God and saying, “Yes Lord, use me” your past mistakes are forgotten.  And I am not advocating works righteousness.  I am advocating works faithfulness.  Christianity isn’t all about what I can get.  So much of Christianity is about what I can give.

            So we read these words of John the Baptist, give your extra coat and extra food to the poor, don’t take more than you have to, and we might say, “Where is the good news in this?”  My friends, this is a part of salvation.  When Jesus was killed on the cross, we were saved from our sins.  When we choose to follow the ways of Christ, we are saved from the sinful ways of this world.  And one day when Christ comes back to reign as king, we will be saved to live with him for eternity.  The good news that John the Baptist proclaimed that day is that we are saved from our wicked ways of greed and selfish ambitions into a life of serving God.  We are saved into a life where there is no need among us.  As we look at the early church in the New Testament, we find that they practiced what is commonly referred to as “The Community of Goods”.  They put all of their things together and they shared one another’s financial, spiritual, and personal burdens.  No, the early church was not perfect, but I believe that this more closely resembles what God has called us to and how we will ultimately live as his people.  When Jesus comes back to rule as king of all, there will be no more poverty, there will be no more anger, there will be no more fighting.  Our swords will be beaten into plowshares and pruning hooks.  The lion, the greatest creature of the jungle, will lie down next to the lamb and live in peace with the defenseless animal.  We will no longer worry about the things that we need that are in short supply.

            My friends, along with Isaiah we too can say, “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.”  Do you hear the present tense that Isaiah uses?  Not only will God one day restore all things and we will dwell with him forever in paradise, but God’s salvation is available to us today.  God’s salvation is made available to us today when we choose the path of repentance, turning from the way that leads to destruction, turning from anger, envy, and selfish ambitions to a generous and life giving existence in Christ our Lord.  The Lord is my salvation and he seeks to be the salvation of all the world, to save everyone from the sins of their past, and to save them from the system of hate and dominance that seems to have a stronghold on this world.   And God wants us to experience this salvation, not by being plucked up out of this world, but by changing the world by calling all people to see and hear the salvation that God has to offer; the salvation that begins when we give our coat to those in need.  That, my friends, is the fruit of repentance.

Pavers for Christ

Luke 1:68-79

68“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. 69He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, 70as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. 72Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, 73the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us 74that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. 78By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, 79to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

 

Luke 3:1-6

3In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Philippians 1:3-11

3I thank my God every time I remember you, 4constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5because of your sharing (partnership [NIV], fellowship [KJV]) in the gospel from the first day until now. 6I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

7It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.

9And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Reverend Billy Graham tells of a time early in his ministry when he arrived in a small town to preach a sermon. Wanting to mail a letter, he asked a young boy where the post office was. When the boy had told him, Dr. Graham thanked him and said, “If you’ll come to the Baptist Church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to heaven.”

The boy replied, “I don’t think I’ll be there… You don’t even know your way to the post office.”

            We all need directions from time to time, don’t we?  As much as we hate to admit it, even the most gifted navigator needs help getting where they want to be from time to time.  And we might have maps, atlases, even GPS equipment in our cars, but you can’t beat good directions from a local person.  A local person can give you landmarks to look for, like drive to the water tower and turn left.  If you get to the fire station, you went too far.

            As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to give directions to people traveling through this world.  And today we are going to look at one way that we can give direction to people that are wandering, by paving the way for them, by pointing out the way that God is active already in their lives.  Today we will look at the ultimate way-paver, John the Baptist, to see how we too can pave the way for Christ.

            Our first text from Luke 1 is commonly called Zechariah’s song or Zechariah’s prophesy.  The first eight verses of our scripture from Luke chapter 1 talk about what God has already done, even though verse 67 calls this “prophecy”.  I would say that the first eight verses are praise and then the rest of the verses are Zechariah prophesying over his new born child.  Notice how he is speaking in the past tense, saying things like God has redeemed his people, looked favorably upon his people, shown mercy to his people, rescued them from their enemies.  What Zechariah says here is that truly God has been with his people from the very beginning, helping them along the way.  Zechariah does not deny that God’s people have often failed to serve God from time to time.  But the point that he is making is that God kept his end of the agreement and has seen them through the thick and through the thin.  So since God has been with his people all along, God will continue to be with them.  God is with them, even now as Israel is under the occupation of the Roman Empire.  God is with them, even now when they are slaves in their own land, the land that God had promised to them long ago.

            Then Zechariah changes the focus of his song.  He goes from talking about what God has done to what God is doing right now.  Zechariah knows that God is upholding his end of the covenant by giving him a son.  He speaks to his son and says, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.” V. 76.

            That’s no small job for this baby who is only a few hours old!  You are going to prepare the way of the Lord, little man.  I am sure that everyone that has ever had a child has set high goals for their offspring, “Yeah, he is going to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or president…”  But what Zechariah is saying here isn’t just his desire for his son.  He is passing on the word of God that came to him from the angel Gabriel nine months earlier.

            Gabriel told Zechariah that he and his wife, who was getting up in age, were going to have a son and he was going to prepare the way for people to turn to God.  Zechariah didn’t believe Gabriel, so Gabriel gave Zechariah some time to think about it.  Zechariah became unable to talk until the birth of his son, and I assume that is why he was able to write such a beautiful song.  He had nine months without talking, which gave him time to compose this!

            But this passage of scripture raises a few questions for me.  As I read this scripture, I have to ask, Why does the Lord need someone to prepare the way for him?  Isn’t he God?  I thought about this for a little while and I came to the conclusion that God chooses to use people like John the Baptist to prepare the way because some people, both in John’s day and in our world today, have gotten so far away from God that they wouldn’t even recognize God if he took on human flesh and walked around with them, healing the sick, raising the dead, and performing other miracles as well.  One who prepares the way, or a way-paver as I like to call them, is someone that draws people’s attention to the way that God is moving in their day and age so that they will not miss an opportunity to experience and worship God.

            And this is what John did, he was a paver for Christ.  He prepared the way.  He told people about the forgiveness that was available to them through the repentance of sins.  He told them that a different world was available to them and that they should change their ways.  But I think that they role of one who is preparing the way of the Lord is much more than proclaiming the Good News.  The role of one preparing the way of the Lord requires living the Good News.

            In chapter 3, Luke quotes the prophet Isaiah as a reference to John the Baptist.  In verses 4-6 he writes, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.  Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

            Pavers don’t just proclaim the Good News, they live it.  Make the paths straight, the valleys, mountains, and hills level, smooth out the rough spots.  And then, THEN, all flesh will see the salvation of God.

            We too often look at salvation as being forgiven for our sins.  And yes, it is forgiveness of sins, but it is much more.  God doesn’t just want to forgive us of the mistakes that we have made, God wants to save us from making those same mistakes again.  Salvation is not just forgiveness of sin, but being led by God out of a life that does not glorify him.  And John the Baptist, and we as followers of Jesus Christ, are called to pave the way for other people to be able to see the life-changing, life giving salvation that Jesus offers.

            Close to where I grew up there is a small town that had an interesting historical downtown area.  And in the downtown area they had uncovered a brick sidewalk from probably 100 years ago.  By the time the renovations were done, this sidewalk was beautiful.  The red bricks lined the road on both sides and led you right up to the storefronts.  However, there was a problem with this reclaimed sidewalk.

            When I walk, I tend to keep my feet pretty close to the ground.  I do not lift my legs high like I was marching in a band, but rather I just kind of shuffle around.  So if there is any kind of rise in the direction that I am walking, I tend to drag my feet a little. 

            So as a young man, I am walking along this reclaimed brick sidewalk dating back to the 1800’s and sure enough, my foot catches a brick and I end up stumbling into the person walking in front of me.  Pavement is a great way to ease someone’s travels.  But pavement gone bad becomes a stumbling block.

            So my difficult question for you all today is Are you making the path to God easier or more difficult?  Are you placing stumbling blocks between other people and Christ or are you making the way straight, level, and smooth? And if we are making the way smooth, do we ever make that path too smooth?

            Following Christ is difficult enough as it is.  Following Christ may require that we sell all of our possessions, give the money to the poor, and live a life of poverty.  Following Christ means that we put nothing before our relationship with him, not money, fame, fortune, even family.  Unfortunately, I think that some people in an effort to be a good paver for Christ have reduced Christianity to praying a simple prayer and not requiring anything of the “converts”.  But as Luke says in chapter three verse three, John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Repentance means not only acknowledging sinfulness, but making an attempt to change our ways.  Repentance means asking for forgiveness for your past mistakes and making an effort to break your sinful patterns.

            When I talk about being a paver for Christ today I think we need to be careful not to reduce what Christ has called us to do, but we also need to not put any additional stumbling blocks in the way.  Unfortunately, the way some Christians live and the things that some Christians say so often become stumbling blocks to those who are not in the church.  In their book UnChristian, Dave Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons report on their findings from a large poll of people outside of the church.  They wanted to know what people outside of the church thought of those that are inside of the church.  These are the words that those outside of the church used to describe Christians: hypocritical, too focused on getting converts, anti-homosexual, sheltered, too political, and judgmental.  They say something along these lines in their book, “To say that we as Christians have an identity problem is an understatement.”

Now I understand how and why we Christians come off to non-Christians in such a way.  And some of these things are justifiable.  But if someone was asked to describe me as a Christian, I would hope that none of those six words or phrases would come to mind.  Those are not paving words.  Those are stumbling blocks.  I would hate to be accused of being so focused on saving souls that I neglected the present needs of a person.  I believe it was Shane Claiborne that said A gospel that isn’t good news to the poor is no gospel at all.

If someone was asked to describe me, this church, or Christians in general, the word that I hope that they would use is “love.”  In John 13:35, Jesus tells his disciples, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Those words or phrases that Kinnaman and Lyons found non-Christians using to describe Christians did not include the word love. 

            You may have noticed in today’s bulletin that we have a new line item revealing a local relief fund that has been started.  Currently that fund contains $1,700.00.  This fund is designated for a project here in town for a young couple.  I got a call from Pastor Luke, one of the pastors at Harrisonburg Mennonite, saying that a friend of his knows this couple and was wondering if there was any way that we could help them out.  I didn’t agree to do anything at first except for to look into the situation and see if there was any way that we at Staunton Mennonite could help.

They purchased a house in the city at the beginning of the summer with the intentions of renovating it and being able to live in it by the end of the summer.  The house had been condemned and is one of the oldest houses in Staunton.  So they got it pretty cheap.  But just because they got it cheap doesn’t mean that they got a good deal on it.

            They had to replace the entire foundation of this house by jacking it up and putting new concrete pillars underneath it to bear the weight of the entire structure.  They gutted the house, carrying out lathe and plaster, old electrical work dating back to when electric was first put in homes, plumbing, all this was torn out and hauled away in a garbage truck.  They had purchased supplies like drywall and insulation for the home.  Then something happened.  They ran out of time and their experience with construction was no longer adequate for the work that they had left to do.

            When they purchased the home, they only took out a large enough loan to cover what they had estimated to be the cost of renovation and enough money for them to live on for the period that they believed it would take them to fix up the house.  But when they ran into problems with the foundation, they found that they were going to need more time and they were going to need more money and they were going to need more experience.

So this friend of Luke’s that lives in Maryland, his name is Levin, started talking with me about how he would be willing to do some fund raising if we could be in charge of dispersing the money.  Essentially, people are donating money to the church with the intention of the church using those funds to help this couple.  And as I spoke with Levin on the phone, he told me a little more about this young couple and their three-year-old boy.

They are not Christians.  In fact, I have been told that they have been hurt by Christians in the past and are somewhat suspicious of Christians.  I hope that they have had some good experiences with Christians as well.  Glenn and I have been out to help give some direction to the young man trying to figure all of this out.  Money has come in from Christians to help them in their project.  And all of this has been done with out of Christian love.

My friends, we have the opportunity to pave the way for Christ.  If you remember, the definition that I used earlier was “A way-paver is someone that draws people’s attention to the way that God is moving in their day and age so that they will not miss an opportunity to experience God.”  I hope that I, that we can be way-pavers as we point out to this couple the way that Christ is moving through so many people to help them establish a home. 

In Philippians 1:3-6 the Apostle Paul says that he gives thanks to God every time he thinks of the Christians in Philippi.  He prays with joy because they are sharing in the gospel, participating in the gospel, living in and living out the gospel.  My friends, there is no better way to pave the way for Christ than to do just that.

I love the idea of living in and living out the gospel.  As redeemed people seeking to follow Christ, we dwell within the grace of God daily.  As workers for God’s kingdom, manifesting the kingdom here on earth, we are living out the gospel.  We are making the high places low, the valleys high, the rough places smooth.  We are removing the stumbling blocks so that all people can come to know Jesus as Lord.

One

1 Kings 19:4-16

4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 5Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” 8He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

 

9At that place 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?” 10He 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.” 11He 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; 12and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13When 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?” 14He 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.” 15Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. 16Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place.

 

            There was an older woman who lived by herself and found herself to be growing more and more lonely as she got older.  So one day she decided to go to the pet store and buy a parrot so that she could have a conversation partner in her home.  But when the lady got the parrot home, the parrot just started to curse and swear.  The old lady wasn’t going to take this ‘foul’ language, so she put the parrot in the freezer for two minutes.

            After the bird had served its penalty, the lady told him, “If you don’t clean up your language, I’ll put you right back in there, this time for 5 minutes.”  So the parrot agreed to watch his mouth.

            The very next day the parrot was at it again, cursing and swearing, complaining about the food he had to eat.  So being true to her word, the old lady grabbed the parrot and put him back in the freezer for five minutes.  After the time had passed the woman pulled the bird out, frost forming on his beak.  And she told him again, “If you don’t clean up your language, I’m going to put you right back in there.”  This time the parrot seemed scared and he promised to clean up his language.

            Months passed and the parrot kept his promise and cleaned up his language.  The old lady asked him one day what it was that made him change his ways.  The parrot replied, “Well I knew you were serious when I asked the turkey what he had said to be put in there and he didn’t reply.”

            Loneliness is something that we all deal with from time to time, isn’t it?  We were created to be relational beings, to live in communion with one another.  But sometimes we find ourselves separated from other people and that can be difficult.  Today we are going to look at the life of Elijah and see that God does not intend for us to be alone, though sometimes he does call us to moments of solitude to connect with him.

            Our text for today picks up soon after Elijah’s confrontation with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah that we looked at last week.  Elijah stood strong against these other prophets, outnumbered 850 to one.  He has his victory over these prophets, but when all of the excitement (and bloodshed) is over, Elijah finds himself right back where he began: by himself.  He wanders for a day into the wilderness and he sat himself down under a tree.  He has no friends, he has no family, he doesn’t even have a pet to keep him company.  He is alone.

            And I am sure that there are a number of factors that are playing into his emotions, one of them being loneliness.  And as Elijah sits there by himself under a single broom tree, Elijah asks God to take his life.  This man who has stood up against the king and against these 850 other prophets and had a convincing victory is so depressed that he wants to die.

            But God wasn’t done with Elijah, there was still work for him to do.  So God provided food and drink for Elijah so that he could make a forty-day journey to Mt. Horeb, which is also known as Mt. Sinai.  And as Elijah is taking shelter in a cave at Mt. Horeb, the word of the Lord comes to him and asked him, What are you doing here?  And Elijah replies in verse 10, “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.”

            Whoa, right there, that says something to me.  Elijah knows that his life is in jeopardy.  He knows that people in high places are seeking after him to kill him.  So if he really wants to die, why is he running away?  I would say that Elijah didn’t want to die.  What Elijah wanted was a different life.  What Elijah wanted was friends, people he could count on, talk to, share with, break bread with.  It wasn’t that Elijah wanted to die, he just didn’t want to keep on living in the same way that he had been living.  The lonely life of a prophet is good for no one’s soul.

            Is there anyone out there that gets lonely from time to time?  You don’t have to raise your hand, because I am sure that we all do.  I know I get lonely.  In Genesis God says, It is not good for man to be alone.  So what does God do?  God creates a friend for Adam.

            Now some people will take this passage and twist it a bit and make it into something that it is not meant to say.  I get pretty frustrated when I hear someone talk about how we are not “complete” until we find a mate, a husband or a wife.  For some parents, marrying off their daughter seems to be the ultimate goal.  It is not good for a person to be alone, I agree 100%.  But this does not mean that a person needs to be married to be complete.

            We look at people in the Bible such as the apostle Paul.  Paul says that he is glad that he is single because…it frees him up to do more ministry!  If Paul was married with a wife and three kids, he wouldn’t have been able to travel all around telling about his encounter with the risen Jesus Christ.  No, he would have had to stay put, working at his job as a tentmaker, paying the mortgage, putting food on the table because women did not often work outside of the house in the first century.  This is why Paul encourages people that are unmarried to stay that way in 1 Corinthians 7.  So when someone says about needing to be married to be complete, I look at the people in the Bible that we know were single: Paul, Jeremiah, and Jesus, for example.  I say that if you are single, you are in good company!

            I had some single friends in Seminary and they shared with me the hurt that they had experienced being single in the church.  And the hurt that they experienced was not that they felt incomplete.  The hurt that they felt was coming from church people that were always trying to “fix” this perceived problem; people wanting to set them up with other individuals.  And these were well-intending people, but my friends were quite comfortable being single and they realized the opportunities that singleness presented them in serving the Lord.

            My sister-in-law is twenty seven years old and single.  She doesn’t seem to be interested in getting married any time soon.  Stacy is in her first year of medical residency in family practice in Omaha, Nebraska.  She really doesn’t know where she wants to work when she finishes up her residency, but she wants to have a flexible schedule because she has always wanted to be able to work on medical mission teams to third world countries.  Two weeks, month-long, whatever length trips to Guatemala, remote parts of Africa, or even working locally in free clinics.  These are the things that appeal to Stacy.  Near or far, high or low, she wants to be able to travel and help other people with the gift that she has been given.

            If Stacy would have gotten married in her early 20’s like her sister did, these opportunities would probably not be available to her.  Paul was a single man and being a single man freed him up from home responsibilities and allowed him to serve God in ways that some of us could never do.  The same is true for Stacy.

            Does Stacy get lonely?  Absolutely.  But loneliness is not a good reason to get married.  God said that it is not good for a person to be alone, but God never said that every person must get married to avoid being alone.  We need friends, relatives, loved ones that can fill that emptiness.

            One of the most challenging things about my job is that I may go all day long without seeing or talking to another human being.  When Sonya comes home after work in the evening, she will often ask me, Did you talk to anyone today?  And sometimes I have to think long and hard about that.  Sometimes I remember, Yes, I spoke with a telemarketer on the phone for awhile.  (Telemarketers hate me because they will call and talk with me for about 10 minutes until they find out that I have absolutely no intention of buying whatever they are selling.  I just like to hear the sound of another person’s voice sometimes.)  It is so amazing to her that I can go all day without speaking to another human being!

            But I am thankful that the church does not require that I spend all of my day in the office at the church.  I know of one church that the pastor is expected to be in his office for 40 hours each week.  I would go nuts.  Thankfully I can go and sit at a coffee shop and at least be among other people.  And a part of my job includes going out and visiting with other people, seeing them in the nursing homes and at their private homes.  And yes, sometimes it is a challenge to go into the nursing homes but I know what it is like to be lonely, and I don’t want people to have to endure that.  Especially during difficult times.

            Last Monday, a man from our congregation had a simple out-patient surgical procedure done to remove one of his toes.  He is going through a lot right now; he is confused and suffering.  But on top of all of this, he is alone.  He hasn’t had any family around since his wife died a number of years ago.  No siblings, no children.  Really, he has nobody but the people of this church.  And I am thankful for the way that Danny and Frances have cared for him over the last couple of months.

            So when this man needed surgery, he was going through all of this alone.  And for a man who is already confused, this was surely scary.  I am glad that he did not have to go through it alone. 

            But there are times when being alone is a good thing.  In verses 11-13 from our scripture this morning, we find that Elijah is at Mt. Horeb where he is to meet God.  And as he stands there at the opening of the cave, a great wind passes by.  This wind was splitting mountains and breaking rocks into pieces.  But we are told that the Lord was not in the wind.  Following the wind came an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  Then there was a fire, but again, the Lord was not in the fire.  Where did Elijah meet the Lord?  V. 12-13, “And after the fire a sound of sheer silence.  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 met Elijah in the silence. 

Solitude, silence.  The Bible tells us that there are times when it is good to be alone.  If we look at the life of Jesus, we see him slipping off alone from time to time.  Before he began his public ministry, Jesus went out into the wilderness, into the silence, by himself to fast and pray.  He often snuck away from his disciples and those who were following him so that he might have some time alone with God. 

            Silence and solitude are great things.  I know that I am personally hardwired to want noise in my life.  When I walk into my house or sit down in my car or work in the office, the first thing that I do is I turn on the radio.  I never drive anywhere without music or talk radio going on in the background.  If I am working outside I strap my iPod to my arm, put the headphones on, and jam out to something, anything, just to make the silence go away.  But sometimes, silence is a good thing.

            When you read the Bible or pray, it is good to not have anything else going on to distract you.  That is why some people have prayer closets and this is why some people go on spiritual retreats to secluded places where there isn’t another living human being within sight.  This is why some religious people have joined monasteries and convents and take a vow of silence.  Jesus modeled for us that sometimes you just need to get away from all of the hustle and the bustle and the noise to focus on hearing God’s voice.  But Jesus also models for us that this is never meant to last forever.  God calls us to join with other people, to fellowship with one another and serve him together.

            Getting back to our scripture for this morning, we find that God meets this depressed, lonely Elijah in the silence.  And after Elijah explains to God what he is doing there (as if God didn’t already know), God does something about Elijah’s condition.  He gives him something that will help with his loneliness.  God gives Elijah a job, or three jobs to be precise.  Go to the wilderness of Damascus and anoint Hazael as king of Aram, anoint Jehu as king of Israel, and anoint Elisha as your successor as God’s prophet (vv. 15-16). 

            Now anointing these two people as kings isn’t going to take very long.  The longest part of the task is going to be in finding these people.  Then you pray over them, pour some oil on their heads, and you leave.  There is no long-term commitment from Elijah needed here.  But this third part, this anointing of Elisha, this does not end when the oil has flowed from the horn and onto Elisha’s head.  What God has called Elijah to do is on-going mentoring, teaching Elisha how to be a prophet of the one true God.

            Now that God has given Elijah work to do, Elijah can feel like he is serving a purpose.  His life has meaning because he is serving God.  And through his service to God he has gained a partner, a companion, and a friend.  Loneliness will no longer be a problem for Elijah.  And if we look forward in the life of Elijah, we can see that even when Elijah was uncertain of his future, when he was about to be taken up into heaven on a chariot of fire, Elisha was the kind of friend that would stand beside his mentor.  Elisha says, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” (2 Kings 2:2)

            My friends, I know that I am not the only one here that gets lonely from time to time.  And while, yes, I do believe that God calls us into solitude for periods of time to spend time with him, I do not believe that God intended us to be alone all of our days.  And I believe that one of the best things that we can do to overcome loneliness and the sense of worthlessness that sometimes comes with it is to serve the Lord.

            Volunteer at the Valley Mission, serving food to the homeless, cleaning the facilities, whatever you can do will be appreciated.  Visit the homebound people that you know would love to have company.  Or even better yet, move in with them and care for them.  You can benefit financially by sharing living expenses and you both gain a conversation partner.  Go to the nursing homes and talk to people you know and meet some people that you don’t know.  If you can’t leave your home, call an old friend.  Knit sweaters for the homeless.  Serve the Lord by loving other people and that loneliness will start to disappear.

            It is not good for a person to be alone.  Marriage, children, family life…these things don’t make a person complete.  What makes a person complete is a relationship with God, serving Him and loving others.  The next time you find yourself being lonely, and we all get lonely, perhaps this is God calling you to something.  Perhaps God is calling you to be a blessing to others.

Standing tall while respecting others

1 Kings 18:20-40

20So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel.  21Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people did not answer him a word. 22Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred fifty. 23Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. 24Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God.” All the people answered, “Well spoken!” 25Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” 26So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made. 27At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” 28Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them. 29As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response.

30Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come closer to me”; and all the people came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down; 31Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name”; 32with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Then he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed. 33Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” 34Then he said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it a second time. Again he said, “Do it a third time”; and they did it a third time, 35so that the water ran all around the altar, and filled the trench also with water. 36At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. 37Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” 38Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. 39When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.” 40Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.” Then they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there.

 

            A Sunday school teacher was telling the story about Elijah’s confrontation with the false prophets of Baal to her elementary-aged students in class one day.  She told them about how he cut and prepared the bull for an offering and then how he had 12 barrels of water dumped over the offering.  The teacher asked her students, “Does anyone know why Elijah had them dump all of the water over the offering?”  An eager girl in the back started waving her hand in the air because she knew the answer.  When the teacher called on her, the little girl replied, “I bet they were in charge of making the gravy!”

            Today we are going to look at the story of the confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal and I hope to show you that we are called to be like Elijah and stand up for what we believe in, even when the odds are against us, 450 to 1.  But I also hope to show you that unlike Elijah, we are called to respect all people even when we disagree on what we believe to be foundational to our lives.

            I remember in elementary school when we were asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  Of course, many of my classmates threw out the usual answers like: a cowboy, a football player, an astronaut, a teacher, and president of the United States.  Not once did I hear anyone say, “I want to be a prophet one day.”  Oh sure, the whole talking with God thing.  That was great.  But the hours were long, the pay was nothing, and there was a really good chance that the people in town were not going to like you and would possibly seek to kill you.  Prophets ate weird things, often cooked over questionable fuel sources, and dressed a little on the funny side.  Plenty of reason why one would not choose to be a prophet.  That is why the role of prophet is given by God, not chosen by the individual.  It was a tough line of work with few earthly perks.

            In the text leading up to our scripture for today, we find that Elijah has been hiding out in the desert for somewhere between two and three years.  They were in the third year of a drought and God told Elijah to go to King Ahab and tell him that the drought was about to end.  King Ahab has been searching for Elijah for these two to three years and why was he searching for Elijah?  Not to invite him over for tea, but to kill this dude.  And here he is, waltzing into Ahab’s home.  And Ahab accuses Elijah of causing the drought.  Elijah tells him, No, you are the reason for the drought.  Because you have worshiped the false god Baal, you and your people have suffered.

            So Elijah comes up with a bit of a contest to prove once and for all that Baal is nothing and that Yahweh is God.  They are to gather the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah at Mt. Carmel for a showdown.

            You have to love those odds, don’t you.  850 versus 1.  Now we don’t hear about the 400 prophets of Asherah once they get to the mountain, but our text tells us that the 450 prophets of Baal are there.  And Elijah challenges them to prepare an offering of a bull on a pile of wood next to an altar to Baal and he would do the same thing on an altar to the Lord.  They would each get their own opportunity to call to their god and to see which god would set fire to and consume their offering.  And whoever’s god was able to do this would be known throughout the land as the one true God.

            The prophets of Baal went first.  They called to their god and cried out to him, but nothing happened from morning through noon.  The prophets cut themselves with swords and spears, pouring their own blood out on the offering and showing their earnest desire for Baal to come to that place and consume their offering.  But nothing happened.

            So it came time for Elijah’s offering to the Lord.  He rebuilt the altar to the Lord, placed the wood on the altar, prepared the bull offering, and then he drenched the whole thing with water.  Twelve large containers of water were dumped on the offering until it was soaked and water was pooling all around the offering, the altar, and the wood.  Then Elijah offered a simple prayer to God and fire came from the sky and consumed the offering; the wood, the stones, the dust, and even the water was burnt up.  And our text tells us that the people turned back to God and said, “Indeed, Yahweh is God.”

            So that’s all cool, right?  I love that Elijah was bold in his faith and that he stood up for what he believed in, even among 850 other people.  I know that it can be difficult to stand up for what you believe in even when the odds are 2:1, even 1:1, or even in your favor.  And my life has never depended on it.  I’ve never been threatened.  Elijah knew very well that Ahab had been looking for him, wanting to kill him, and that if things didn’t go Elijah’s way, he was a goner.

            The prophets were often not the most poplar people in their time.  Rarely did they single out an individual and critique that person, but they often called attention to the sins of the community around them.  When Israel was prosperous, yet forgot about the widows and the orphans, Isaiah called the people out on the carpet.  He said “This isn’t right!  You know it, I know it, and I’m not going to stand for it any longer.”  People usually don’t like to hear that stuff.  So I have much respect for Elijah and the other prophets who were willing to sacrifice their popularity, their personal comfort, and even their lives for what they believed to be right.

But Elijah is not perfect; Elijah is a human being just like you and me.  And there are some things we see here about the character of Elijah that I don’t think are helpful for us as Christians today, things that we should not emulate.  And it isn’t just Elijah that fails God from time to time, we all do!  Even the greatest leaders in the Bible stumble from time to time.

            The Bible is full of imperfect people trying to follow God’s perfect will.  Some of the time we are called to do as these people did, and some times we are to learn from their mistakes as well.  And sometimes we are left to figure out who falls into which category.  We look at guys like Moses and we know that he was a great leader, but he also was a murderer.  David was called a man after God’s own heart, but he was an adulterer and also a murderer.  Jesus said that there was never a greater man born of a woman than John the Baptist, but John was a doubter and questioned Jesus as to if he was the messiah.  These are all godly men, with an emphasis on men.  They are not God.  Neither was Elijah.  I think that Elijah did great things.  As I said last week, he is one of my favorite prophets.  So while I think we can look at him and admire his bravery in standing up to the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, I think we can skip the mocking of people from other religions.

If we look at verse 27, we find a little humor coming from Elijah.  I like humor, I tell jokes.  Elijah is being sarcastic, calling out to the prophets of Baal, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.”  When Elijah says that Baal must have wandered away, this is a Hebrew idiom referencing wandering into the woods to do his business.  I can tend to be a little sarcastic myself, so I laugh a little bit when I read these things.

            But the Bible tells it like it is in verse 27.  It says that Elijah “mocked” the prophets of Baal.  He is demeaning them, making fun of them, laughing at their expense.  To be honest, I would say that Elijah was being a bit of a jerk to these other prophets.

            I think the Elijah did well to stand his ground when it was one versus 450 or even 850.  Stand up for what you believe.  But don’t be a jerk about it.  I sometimes hear Christians laugh about what people from other religions believe.  Yeah, Mormons believe that Joseph Smith translated a golden book that nobody else ever even saw.  And how heavy would that book be if it were made entirely of gold?  Right, like that could happen.  L. Ron Hubbard wrote that human existence came into being from aliens planting life on earth (or something like that).  We hear these things, and we laugh.  But are some of the things that we believe that much easier to believe?  That Jesus was born of a virgin, walked on water, and rose from the dead? 

            Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, walked on water, and rose from the dead.  My point is, if we believe something as abnormal as these things, then why do we make fun of other religions that believe certain abnormal things as well?  Or why do we single out a religious group and mock them as Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal?

            I went to a very white, very middle class, very culturally Christian high school in Ohio.  And most of us had never even met a person of a different religion.  Then in the sixth grade, a family from India moved to our school district.  I believe that school was pretty rough for Kunj.  He spoke differently than the rest of us, his skin was darker, and he was shorter than most of the kids his age.  So we made fun of him for these things.

            But it wasn’t until we got to high school gym class, after over two years of being made fun of for his physical characteristics, just when the other kids were starting to accept him, we found out something else about Kunj.  Kunj was and is a Hindu.  We first noticed in the locker room after gym class that he had this string that ran from his shoulder around his waist.  This was new to us, so we asked about it.  It is what is called the janoi, or the sacred string.  When a Hindu child turns about 13 years old, they go through a rite of passage ceremony, like a Jewish boy would have a Bar Mitzvah.  This string was something that Kunj wore all of the time, under his clothes, in the shower, in class. 

            So now religion became one more thing that we could make fun of Kunj about.  Thankfully, none of us really knew what a Hindu was.  But when we had hamburgers for school lunches, we would give Kunj a hard time saying things like, “I think I’m eating your grandma!”  Man, we were so mean to Kunj.  And as bad as it is when kids make fun of other kids, the really sad thing is that some of us never grow out of it.  I don’t think Elijah was right in his mocking the prophets of Baal.   

            If we are to follow any individual from the Bible, let us follow Jesus Christ.  If we look at Jesus’ interactions with other people in the Bible, we find that he is kind of harsh to some people, and often loving and accepting toward others.  Who is he harsh toward?  Those that think they have everything figured out, those that criticize other people’s actions, those that condemn others because of their lack of religious zeal.  Jesus is most critical of the Scribes, Sadducees, and the Pharisees.  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.  It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.” (Mat 23:23).  It was the people that thought that they had it all together who were missing the point!

            But how did Jesus interact with those outside of his religion?  We don’t have many examples in the Bible, but in one instance, Jesus describes a Samaritan as “good” and uses that Samaritan as the example of how all people should act.  When he meets the Samaritan woman at the well, he does not mock her, but he enters into a conversation with her.  The only example we have of Jesus speaking poorly of a person of a different faith background is when he encounters the Syrio-Phoenician woman and he calls her a dog.  I really don’t know what to do with that scripture, to be honest!

            So when I hear Elijah mocking the prophets of Baal, I don’t think that we are to mimic his actions.  We are to stand tall when we are in the minority, but we are to respect all people, and that means respecting their beliefs, even when we don’t believe what they believe at all.  Now this doesn’t mean that we don’t have conversations about faith and that we can’t invite people of other faith to consider the foundations of their faith and whether they should be following Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  This doesn’t mean that all religions are the same.  But it does mean that we should treat all people with the same amount of dignity and respect that they deserve as people created in the image of God.

            Elijah took it one step further than simply mocking the prophets of Baal.  He then went to the extreme measure of massacring all 450 of them.  When the people saw that the Lord was indeed God, they repented of what they had done, they repented for having worshipped Baal and Asherah.  They new that they had been in the wrong and they were willing to do whatever they needed to do to make things right.  So Elijah said, “Kill them” and the people did just that.

            The Bible doesn’t tell us that God told Elijah to kill the 450 prophets of Baal, but if you just read through the text, you might assume that Elijah is doing God’s will.  But we have seen time and time again throughout the Bible that people that are following God do make mistakes, they do act out of their own emotions, and they do often miss God’s intentions.

            I don’t know that Elijah needed to have those prophets killed.  I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them who had seen this great act would have converted and given their lives right then and there to follow the one true God.  But instead it is often our first response to just kill the other people.  Now that the power is in our favor, we are going to exercise that power!

            Just over a week ago, thirteen American soldiers lost their lives on US soil at Ft. Hood in Texas.  The gunman was a major in the Army, and the gunman is a Muslim.  When things like this happen, especially on our home turf, Americans tend to retaliate in an extreme way.  After September 11^th, 2001, Muslim mosques were bombed by everyday people, property was defaced, messages of hate were sprayed on homes and cars belonging to Muslims.  On our televisions and computers we hear messages from Christian leaders saying that we need to attack back.  If they take 13 American lives, we will take 1,300 of their lives.

            Let’s stop this cycle of hate!  I follow the Prince of Peace, Lord of lords, who told us to love our enemies, turn the other cheek, and to pray for those that persecute us.  A friend of mine has a bumper sticker that says, “Love your enemies, it messes with their heads!”  Indeed, it does.  When we love our enemies, it does mess with their heads.  And sometimes, they end up loving us back.

            I saw Kunj a couple of years ago at a high school football game.  He was still just as short as ever, but yet he seemed to be walking a lot taller.  He walked back into his old school where he was mocked and persecuted by the jocks, the preppies, the rich kids, even the nerds.  And now, as the jocks had seen their waistlines grow and their hairlines recede, Kunj, a successful software engineer with a beautiful wife and child, could have turned the tables on those jokes, I mean jocks, and mocked them.  But he didn’t.  He approached them as friends, shook their hands, and caught up with them.  He asked them about their lives and showed an honest interest in what they were doing.  And I’m glad he did.  You’ve gotta love it when a Hindu teaches how to be Christ-like.

            Standup for what you believe in.  Even if you are outnumbered 850 to 1, even if it might cost you your life.  But if you find yourself in a power position where you can persecute others, mock them, or even slaughter them, remember the teachings and life of our Lord and love those people instead.

God is calling

1 Kings 17:7-16

7But after a while the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

8Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9“Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” 11As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” 13Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. 14For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” 15She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 16The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

 

Two cannibals meet one day. The first cannibal says, “You know, I just can’t seem to find a tender missionary. I’ve baked ‘em, I’ve roasted ‘em, I’ve stewed ‘em, I’ve barbequed ‘em, I’ve even tried every sort of marinade. I just cannot seem to get them tender.” The second cannibal asks, “What kind of missionary do you use?” The other replied, “You know, the ones that hang out at that place at the bend of the river. They have those brown cloaks with a rope around the waist and their sort of bald on top with a funny ring of hair on their heads.” “Ah ha!” he replies. “No wonder…those are friars!”

What do you think of when you hear the term “missionary”?  I would bet that most of us have at least some understanding of what a missionary is.  We often think of a missionary as the people that the church supports financially and prayerfully to send them into the remote parts of the world to work with indigenous people, teaching them about Christianity and trying to teach them what we believe to be better ways to live (reading, writing, arithmetic).  And indeed, this is mission!  But mission is so much more!

            I would define mission as joining with God to bring shalom to all of the world.  We often hear shalom translated as “peace”.  And that is somewhat correct.  Peace is an aspect of shalom, but the definition of shalom is much bigger than peace.  Shalom means “well-being.”  So when I say that mission is joining in with God to bring shalom to all of the world, I am saying that mission includes economic development in third-world countries, mission includes feeding the poor, clothing the naked, sharing God’s redemptive message, the forgiveness of sins, digging wells for fresh water, teaching inner-city school kids, working with AIDS victims in Africa and in our neighborhood, prayer, and financial support.  Mission is joining in on what God is doing and not just sitting back in our easy chair, going to church once a week, and saying, “It’s all good, I’m under grace.”

            Rob Bell was asked once what the mission statement for his church is and he replied, “We are disciples, who are making disciples, who are making disciples, who are making disciples…”  I like that!  Because to bring about God’s shalom, we need followers of Jesus Christ.  Now I did not say that we need believers in Jesus Christ.  The Bible tells us that even the demons believe.  When Jesus gave his great commission in Matthew 28 he tells his disciples to go out into all of the world and make more disciples, more followers, not just believers.

            Today we are going to look at the prophet Elijah and we will see on this Missions Sunday that if we are doing what God has called us to do, God will supply us with what we need to work for God’s shalom.  We will also see that sometimes answering God’s call requires a leap of faith.  So let’s jump into the scripture to see what we can learn about joining God in his mission.

            Elijah is an interesting character who leads an interesting life.  In the scripture leading up to our text for today we find that King Ahab has come to power and married a woman named Jezebel.  Ahab begins to worship the god of his wife, who is named Baal, and builds a temple and an altar for Baal, and then puts up an Asherah pole.  So we have the new king of Israel and many of the people breaking the first commandment “You shall have no other gods before me.”  God doesn’t like it when his chosen people reject him, so God sends the prophet Elijah to Ahab and tells him that because of his sin, that there will be a great drought in the land. 

            God then speaks to Elijah telling him to move east of the Jordan, and it isn’t clear why God told Elijah to do this.  It is either to keep him safe from Ahab, to lead him to water, or likely both.  So this is what Elijah does, he picks up and moves to the Jordan.  And God led him to water to drink and the ravens, birds from the air, brought him bread and meat twice a day.

            Elijah was doing God’s work, was he not?  He was a prophet of the most High God, working to bring God’s shalom to the world.  And God sent him to a place where he would be safe and God delivered food for him.  God provided what was necessary for Elijah to do the things that God had called him to do.  And I believe that is true for people that are doing God’s work today as well.  Now God never promises to keep us safe when we are doing God’s work.  We have large volumes of books naming people that died serving God.  One of which is the Martyr’s Mirror.  But we have probably all heard stories of how God supplies for those who are committed to his service.

            We in Virginia Mennonite Conference have a wonderful mission organization just up the road in Harrisonburg.  Virginia Mennonite Missions supports around 200 mission workers every year in at least fifteen countries, often in partnership with other mission agencies.  They tend to concentrate missionaries in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean region, and some Asian and European countries.  Not only do they participate in overseas ministry, but Virginia Mennonite Missions is also very involved in local ministry as well; planting churches and equipping the established churches for ministry in a rapidly changing world.  I get a monthly newsletter from Ed Bontrager informing us of resources for those in pastoral leadership in these times.  VMMissions is a great organization, and I am glad that we as a church support this organization.

            Now as many of you probably already know, the past year or so has been a pretty tough year for many people financially.  Many people have lost jobs, lost hours at their work, taken a pay cut, lost homes, and so on. We are in a recession; times are tough.  So when times get tough, non-profit organizations like churches tend to take a hit financially.  It makes sense, when your constituents are making less money, less money will be donated.  This is true for most churches, and it is often true for organizations like Virginia Mennonite Missions.

            VMMissions has an annual budget of about $2,000,000.00 and they operate on a September 1-August 31 fiscal year.  During this past year individual and congregational giving was down 6%, which is not really that much when compared to other mission organizations.  But that wasn’t their only hit financially.  One thing that we often overlook is that the exchange rate of the US dollar to the Euro has not been in our favor recently.  So even if VMMissions is able to raise money, it is worth less when it is sent into other countries.

            But perhaps the biggest hit that VMMissions took last year was in their long-term investments.  We often refer to these investments as endowments.  They put a large sum of money in a high-earning account, like a money market or CD, and use the interest off of these accounts for their operating expenses.  VMMissions usually depends on 10% of their income coming from endowments.  That’s $200,000 that they usually rely on from endowments.  This year they lost money on their endowments.  I don’t know many non-profit organizations that can take that kind of hit and survive.

            So VMMissions was looking for ways to save money in the upcoming year, as we all should.  Pay cuts for staff personnel, elimination of staff positions, elimination of missionary positions; all were considered.  Chris and Melody Riddle were home on furlough this past summer after only 2 years of ministry in Italy.  They believed that they were just getting settled in their community, just getting comfortable with the language, their kids were just starting to connect with other kids, they were finally feeling like they were doing ministry, and they were told that there might not be enough money to send them back.

            Perhaps God was saying that the work of VMMissions and the work of the Riddles was no longer needed, because God provides for those who are doing His will, right?  Maybe this was God’s way of saying, “It is time to find something else to do.”  But in August, and remember that this is the last month of the fiscal year for VMMissions, approximately $600,000.00 in unexpected donations came in, mostly from bequests.  Now not all of this money was made immediately available for VMMissions, but it gave a huge boost financially to VMMissions as well as a huge boost to the attitudes of the 200+ workers with VMMissions.  There was still a need to reduce this year’s budget by 9%, but Chris, Melody, and the boys have been able to return to Italy to continue in the work that they have begun.  God provides when we are doing God’s will.

            Now this is not a call to complacency.  I am in no way suggesting that we sit back and do nothing and just expect that God will take care of things.  No, we are called to action.  We are called to service.  We are called to give of our time, we are called to give of our energy, we are called to give of our money, and we might be called to give our last bit of food.

            In our scripture for this morning, Elijah goes to the town that God directed him to.  And Elijah approaches a widow that God told Elijah would provide food for him.  But when Elijah asks her for bread, she tells him her sad story.  She only has enough flour and enough oil to make a small loaf of bread.  When that is gone, every thing is gone.  So she is going to go home, make what bread she can, share it with her son, and then die of hunger.

            But Elijah informs her that God has a different plan.  God wants to use her and God will make sure that the small amount of flour and oil will not run out until the drought is over and there is food in the region once again.

            How many of you know what an impala is?  Now I’m not talking about the Chevy Impala, I’m talking about the African antelope-like creature called an impala.  Impala’s are herbivores, meaning they eat plants.  They are not a predator to anything but grass and shrubs.  However, impalas make a pretty tasty treat to lions, tigers, and other carnivores.  Impalas grow to about 3 feet tall at the shoulders, and can weigh up to 170 lbs. so they are quite comparable to our white tail deer that so many of us like to eat.

            Now the interesting thing about an impala is that God gave them the ability to escape danger in an amazing way.  Impalas can jump over 10 feet high into the air, and over 30 feet long.  So when a predator approaches an impala, they just start jumping around, covering long distances in a single bound, until they reach safety.  To put that in perspective, if you put an impala on a basketball court, an impala could jump high enough to land on top of the basket and it could jump far enough to go ten feet beyond the three-point line. 

            Now if you go to the zoo, you will see impalas enclosed in an area with only a short wall around it that is about three, maybe four feet high.  And it doesn’t take a physicist to figure out that an impala should be able to jump out of a pen that has a wall that is only three feet high.  And having grown up on a farm, I know exactly how difficult it can be to keep an animal within the confines that you choose for it.  So why don’t the impalas jump out of their pens?

            Well someone figured out that impalas will not jump somewhere if they can’t see the place where they are going to land.  In order to have the confidence to leap over that wall, they need to see what is on the other side.  So as long as the wall is at or above eye level, they will not jump over it because they are afraid of what’s on the other side.

            We have the ability to do great things.  We have been called to join God in his shalom making mission to this world.  We have been called to join in what God is doing, but so often we are afraid because we are uncertain of what might happen.  We refuse to jump out of our pens because we don’t really know what is on the other side of the wall.  It is safe in our pens.  We have food to eat and a place to sleep.

            And this is understandable.  We all fear the unknown.  The woman from our scripture hesitated to give Elijah the last of her food and there is good reason to hesitate in this situation.  I would hesitate too.  Wouldn’t you?

            Now the interesting thing to me is that in verse nine God tells Elijah that he has instructed a widow in the town to feed Elijah.  But when Elijah comes to the woman, she says that she can’t feed him.  She only has enough to feed her son and herself one more time, and then they are going to die.  But Elijah instructs her to first make him something to eat, and then she will see that God will provide for her until the great drought is over.  They will not run out of flour and they will not run out of oil.  There will be plenty.  And evidently the woman listened to Elijah because what Elijah had said would happen did happen.

            See the thing that makes God’s calling so much easier to answer is when other people are hearing the same thing as you are.  God had told this woman to feed Elijah, but she didn’t listen.  She was like that impala, not knowing what was on the other side of the fence, afraid to jump because of the unknown.  But when Elijah comes along and confirms what she has heard, then she knows that her original call from God was authentic.  Someone else has heard it as well.

            Now I know that the Bible shows us some special cases where an individual is called by God and nobody else seems to know about it.  We don’t know that anybody else was able to confirm Abram’s call to leave Ur, we don’t know that anybody confirmed Moses’ call to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.  But I believe that when God calls us today, God does so by speaking not only to us, but to other people as well.

            Diane Zaerr Brenneman worked for Mennonite Church USA in a role that the business world might call human resources.  She was in charge of getting pastors to fill out what is called the Ministerial Leadership Inquiry documents which are then matched with a similar document that churches that are looking for a pastor fill out.  So Diane was in a position where a lot of pastors would come to her to say, Hey, can you help me find a job? 

            Diane told me that quite often she would have newcomers that would come to her office, call her on the phone, or send her an email saying, “God is telling me that I should be a pastor.”  And her response was always, “Great.  Who else is telling you that?”

            I encourage you to ask the same question of yourself when you sense that God is calling you to do something scary, life-changing, life-altering, or new.  If you sense that God is calling you to join in on God’s mission, ask friends and family to help you discern if that calling is truly from God.  If the impala would only ask the neighboring orangutan if it was safe to jump over the fence, then maybe it would find the confidence to do just that and explore new territory.  And maybe, just maybe, if we partner together, affirming God’s call on our lives, we might be able to join together to seek God’s shalom for all of the world, disciples making disciples, who make disciples.

God is listening

Hebrews 9:11-14

11But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), 12he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

 

            I went to a pastor’s appreciation dinner on Tuesday, and I decided to wear my navy blazer, which most of you have never seen before because I so rarely wear it.  I was looking classy that evening with my starched-white shirt, navy blazer, and khaki pants.  I was, that is, until the lady next to me asked me to pass the sweet and low and I reached a little too low for it and dragged my sleeve through the chocolate cake on the table.  But of course I did not know immediately what I had done.  So I rested my arm at my side, I sat it on the table in front of me, I put it on the back of my chair.  And by the time I noticed what I had done, I had spread chocolate all across the right side of my fancy blazer, the chair, and the white table cloth.  By this time I was not looking as classy as I had when I left the house.

            So what did I do to clean it all up?  I rubbed some blood and ashes from a burnt heifer on the chocolate stains.  No, of course not!  I’m still looking for a good dry cleaner in the Staunton area.  Blood, ashes, what are these things going to clean?  I’ve cut myself enough times and cleaned enough fire pits to know that these things do not clean, they do not purify.  They stain.  I saw a joke on the internet this week saying that the best thing to do when you get a blood stain on a t-shirt is to spill more blood around the stain so that it doesn’t stand out as much.

            So there is something counterintuitive about God’s cleaning agent, because it is by the blood of Christ that we are made clean.  It doesn’t make sense, and perhaps that is one that we can chalk up to the humor of God.  I did not choose today’s scripture because it is an easy one to preach on or because it makes sense, but I hope that we can all be challenged to grow by looking at God’s cleaning agent.  Today I want to look at two different things that have come about because of the actions of Jesus: the atonement and purification.

            Today’s scripture is full of references to Judaism, which we might expect by the name of this particular book of the Bible: Hebrews.  The author of Hebrews is writing to Jewish people and is attempting to show them how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jewish messianic expectations.  So in order to understand today’s scripture, we need to understand Judaism a little better.  Actually, I would say that in order to understand scripture at all, we need a pretty good background in Judaism.  So it might seem like today’s sermon is a little heavy on the Jewish teachings and practices, but I believe that this is essential for us to understand what scripture is intended to teach us.

Verse 11 begins by telling us that Jesus came to the greater and more perfect tabernacle or tent.  This is a reference to the old, portable tabernacle that the Israelites took with them as they wandered from captivity in Egypt to the Promised Land over a period of 40 years.  Then, as they set up in the Promised Land, they continued to worship in the tent style tabernacle up until Solomon built the temple just after the year 1000 BC.  So we have a couple hundred years where the Israelites worshiped God in a moveable tent, or more precisely a series of tents.

            When Solomon built his temple, it in many ways was structured the same way that the tabernacle made out of the series of tents was to be assembled.  Both had a holy place inside where the priests would perform the religious practices and then there was the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place where only the high priest could enter one time each year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, to make sacrifices to God to atone for the sins of the people.  To atone for something means to compensate for something done wrong, ie the forgiveness of sins.  These two rooms, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place were separated by a curtain, or perhaps two curtains.  God was believed to dwell within the Holy of Holies and if anyone other than the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies they would die.  If the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies without first going through the correct rituals to purify himself, he would die.  I’ve even heard it said that the High Priest would tie a bell around his neck and a rope to his leg that way if they were struck down dead by God when they entered into the Holy of Holies the other priests would hear that the bell stopped ringing and they could pull the priest out with the rope.

            Before the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement they were to get two goats and a bull and bring them into the temple.  The High Priest would then take the bull and slaughter it as a sin offering to atone for his own sin and the sin of his household.  If he didn’t do this, he didn’t live through the whole process.  A sinful person could not enter the Holy of Holies and have direct contact with God. 

So this now-atoned-for priest takes the goats and one of them will be sent out into the wilderness as a scapegoat, a symbolic carrier of the sins of the people away from the camp, and the other one is slaughtered for the sins of the people.  The High Priest then takes the blood of the goat and blood of the bull and smears it on various things within the Holy of Holies and within the tent of meeting.  The bodies of these animals are then burned as an offering, and the remains are taken out of the camp and disposed of.  Then they did it again the next year, and the year after that, and so on.  Every year, on the Day of Atonement, they went through this process.

But the author of Hebrews says that Jesus came as High Priest in a perfect tabernacle.  And in verse 12, “he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.”

That, my friends, is what we call the Good News.  No longer do we need to slaughter a goat and cast our sins upon another goat and send it out into the wilderness to atone for our sins.  But Jesus came and acted as both the High Priest and as the sacrifice, atoning for the sins of all those that would know him as Lord.

Now there is a clear division between verses 12 and 13.  Verse 12 is comparing the Day of Atonement in the Jewish tradition and the way that Jesus has served as both priest and sacrifice in his death on the cross atoning for the sins of his followers.  There is a stipulation here.  If you are a follower of Jesus, then this atonement is for you.  It’s not just for Jews, it’s not just for Mennonites, but it is for those that know Jesus as Lord.  However, I would say that verse 13 changes gears a bit and goes from the atonement and transitions to purification. 

The Israelites had a fair number of purity laws concerning what they could and could not touch, what they could or could not eat, with whom they could or could not eat it with.  You cannot touch dead people or you will be ceremonially unclean for a week and you can’t enter into the temple for worship, you can’t be in contact with other people.  You can’t eat shellfish, pork, and other animals, or else you will be unclean and you cannot enter into the temple and you can’t be in contact with other people.  Don’t eat with a Gentile, or…you get the idea.

In Numbers 19 we find an interesting ritual that was used for the purification of the people when they became unclean.  The priest was to slaughter and burn a red heifer, and the ashes of the burned heifer were to be mixed with water and dumped on the unclean person.  Then, after the prescribed time had passed, that person could enter into the Jewish community and into worship, into the presence of God once again.  This is what the author of Hebrews is referring to when he says, “13For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!”

I would say that atonement is contingent on making Jesus your Lord, but this purification is universal.  These are separate acts that took place through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We often focus in the church on the atonement aspect of Jesus death and resurrection, but we should not take lightly this purification that took place.

It is because Jesus has purified all people that we can approach God without going through the High Priest.  At Jesus’ death, the Gospel of Luke says that the curtain that separated the common people from the Holy of Holies was torn in two.  God does not reside in the Holy of Holies.  Now God lives with us, among us, and within us in the form of the Holy Spirit.  And again, there is nothing that we have to do to acquire this.  Jesus already took care of it.  So whether you are the finest, clean cut, church-going Christian, or a drug-dealing, thieving, lowlife, God will hear your prayers.  Jesus bridged the gap that once divided God and humanity, the gap that once could only be bridged by a High Priest who had gone through the purification rituals.  And I believe that Jesus bridged that gap because Jesus, as God incarnate, came and dwelled among us, among the sinners, the tax collectors and prostitutes.  Now all can come directly to God.

Would you not agree that all people can come to God in prayer?  Or does God only hear the prayers of those who are righteous and upright?  If God does not hear the prayers of sinners, then when I prayed to God and asked him to be Lord in my life, that prayer was not heard.  I was not a Christian when I dedicated my life to following Jesus.  If I had already been a Christian, then I would have already made that decision.

In Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells a parable about two men that went up to the temple to pray; one a Pharisee and one a tax collector.  First the Pharisee stands up to pray, makes a big show about things, and prays out loud, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

But then we hear from the tax collector, the un-holy one, the one that the Pharisee used as an example of what he was glad to not be like.  And the tax collector beats his breast and says, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”  And who does Jesus say is heard by God?  Trick question!  They are both heard by God.  But the tax collector is the one that goes home on God’s good side.

Yes, I believe that God hears all prayers.  If we truly believe that God is all-knowing, then God must hear all prayers, regardless of our outward piety.  Righteousness is not a criteria in the New Testament for being heard by God and righteousness in not a criteria in the New Testament for God answering your prayer.  The criteria in the New Testament that we are given for God answering prayers is when we ask for things according to God’s will in Jesus’ name.  And it was God’s will to forgive the tax collector in Jesus’ parable.

This was not the case in the Jewish way of thinking.  If we look at John chapter 9, the story of the man born blind and healed by Jesus, we find that the Pharisees were questioning this now-healed man about Jesus to see if he sinned by healing on the Sabbath.  And this man born blind says that Jesus could not have sinned by healing him because God does not hear the prayers of sinners.  Chapter 9:31, “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.”  He is saying, Jesus couldn’t have been a sinner because God answered his prayer.  We find scripture in the Old Testament that confirms this in Proverbs and Psalms.  But because Jesus has come to this earth in the form of a human being, spent time with the sinners, and torn the curtain separating the Holy of Holies, now all can come to God in prayer.

            This is hard for some of us to understand today.  We want to believe that we are the ones that God hears and nobody else.  We want to be like the man born blind and say, “God does not hear the prayers of sinners.”  We feel like we are entitled to God hearing our prayers and not the prayers of the sinners, not the prayers of riff-raff and vagabonds.  We have dedicated our lives to serving God!  We have sacrificed money, fame, power, prestige.  We have given to the poor, loved our enemy, forgiven people that did not deserve to be forgiven.  God must hear our prayers; God must hear my prayers.  It just doesn’t seem fair to think that God would hear the prayers of all people.

            But then we realize, Christianity isn’t about what I have done.  Christianity is about what God has done through Jesus Christ.  And to be honest, sometimes that scares me.  That scares me because I like to be in control.  If I just do this, and if I just do that, then God will love me more, then God will hear my prayers, then God will answer my prayers.  But no, it is not about what I do.  It is about what God has done.

One thing that I get from time to time when people find out that I am a pastor or a church-going man is that they will ask me to pray for them.  And it is not that they are asking me to pray with them as they pray, but to pray for them because they think that they are not good enough to pray to God.  They believe that they are sinners and that there is this separation between them and God and that God can not hear them across that gulf.  I try to assure them that my prayers are no better than their prayers.  God will hear you whether you are the pope or a prostitute, a reverend or society’s reject.  Perhaps the best thing that I could do for people in that situation is to say, Yes, I will pray for you.  Will you pray for me?

Today is All Saints Day.  We in the Mennonite Church don’t often make a big deal about All Saints Day because we don’t like to venerate individuals.  Perhaps that is a good thing, because as I have said, it isn’t about what we do, but about what God has already done that deserves veneration.

But yet we do have a decision to make.  We are faced with the decision to accept the gift of grace and follow Christ, or not.  And to be honest, accepting grace is the easy part, following Christ, what we call discipleship, is not.

In his letters to the Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, Paul addresses his recipients as “saints”.  To the saints in Corinth, to the saints in Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae.  Paul doesn’t call them saints because they are perfect, but because they have made the decision to follow Jesus, accepting the atonement brought about by his blood, and not the blood of goats and bulls, and dedicating themselves to a life of service.

As I look out upon the faces of the saints of Staunton, we know that we are not perfect, but we are here today because we seek to serve the living God.  Maybe you wouldn’t think of yourself as a saint.  Maybe you can think of a grandparent or a neighbor that was truly a saint.  But me, a saint?  Come on!

If that is where you are today, praise God, because we serve a God that came to this earth in the form of Jesus Christ to bridge the gap between sinful humanity and a holy God.  Now sinners like you and sinners like me can come to God to ask for healing, to ask for guidance, to ask for forgiveness so that we can work toward becoming the saints that we are called to be.

Blood and ashes leave stains.  I’ve got the shirts to prove it.  But the blood of Christ has cleansed us.  Is this counterintuitive?  Yes indeed.  Is it effective?  I’m counting on it.  And I am thankful that everyone, sinners and saints, can come to our Lord.  Praise God.