Crazy things Jesus Said and how they have changed us #5 The first shall be last and the last shall be first. RUMC 5-27-2018

Crazy things Jesus Said and how they have changed us #5

The first shall be last and the last shall be first.

RUMC 5-27-2018

Is there anyone else here who was the shortest kid in their class?  I had a teacher, probably 2nd grade who always lined us up by height to march us down the hall to gym.  I was always last in line.  Oh, how I wanted her just once to line us up shortest to tallest so I could be in front.

Those of you who follow racing might be able to tell us who won the Indy 500 a year ago…I had to look it up. Anyone remember?  Takuma Sato.  But no one remembers that Ed Jones came in 3rd, or that Jay Howard came in dead last. No one remembers that.

You baseball fans might be able to tell me who has the highest batting average this year… Mookie Betts of the Redsox.  But can anyone tell me who has the lowest batting average this year?  Kole Calhoun of the angels at 151.

 Our world is bent toward the winners, the biggest, the brightest, the most beautiful, the fastest, and the best. Even though for every winner there is a whole slew of folks who didn’t win.

No child grows up dreaming of coming in last in the Indy 500, batting last in the league, being second runner-up or even first runner-up in anything.  No one brags about being picked last for kickball or graduating last in their class.

 So when Jesus says, “The last will be first, and the first will be last” it is a shock to the system.  When he says, “Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave.”  We have this gut reaction that screams “NO! That’s not fair!”

So what kind of crazy talk is this?  What does Jesus mean when he says “the first shall be last” or “the greatest must be your servant?”

 I think to understand Jesus’ teaching we need to back up a whole chapter. Chapter 19 of Matthew starting with verse 16, on page 21, tells of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and said he has fulfilled all the laws.  Jesus tells him if he wants to be saved he must go sell all he has and give it to the poor.  He goes away sad because he is very rich.

In discussing this with the disciples, Jesus says it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven.

 Then there is an interesting line. In verse 27 of chapter 19, Peter said, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” You can hear it in his voice.  He is thinking whohoo! Score… we will be in for a bonus because we left everything we had, and on top of that, we are following Jesus around the countryside.  “So, Jesus, those of us who have left everything and sacrificed much and followed all your teachings… what will be our reward?”  Jesus’ answer concludes with the sentence “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”

You can almost hear the question marks in Peter’s silence.

 Then as we move into chapter 20 Jesus tells that parable that so many of you hate. I have had many discussions about this parable of the workers in the vineyard because people can’t get around the “unfairness” of it.

It is the parable in which the owner of the vineyard hires folks to work and promises a denarius, a standard days wage for a laborer. Then he goes out a few hours later and hires more, and a few hours later and hires more and then just before the end of the day hires one more crew.

At the end of the day, the vineyard owner lines them all up from the most recent hire to the ones who had been there all day. To everyone’s surprise, the short timers receive a denarius. So do the ½ dayers, and by this time those who had worked all day were sure that they would receive a bonus above and beyond the denarius.  But they were wrong. They received the denarius too.

When they grumbled, the owner replies, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

 And once again Jesus repeats, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Do you think that might be an important teaching?

 Now hang in there with me. 4 verses later, Salome, the name we traditionally give to James and John’s mother, has a question. I have to wonder… was she asleep… was she just a bargainer… was she out at the well when Jesus said the part about first and last? What’s the deal?  Only 4 verses after Jesus teaches “So the last will be first, and the first will be last” Salome begs Jesus to let her sons be first in the kingdom of heaven; one sit on the right and the other on the left means that one would be vice president and the other the next person in the chain of command after the vice president.

 Jesus is indignant and says, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—  just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

I really don’t think she was asleep, I just think she couldn’t understand this crazy idea that the first would be last and the last first.  That’s not the way the world works.

But just think about it a minute… the first are first, but they will in some way be the last. And the last are last but they will in some way become first…there is only one way that can happen.  If everyone is to be first and everyone is to be last simultaneously, then it must be that everyone is in a tie. Everyone is exactly equal. Everyone is at the same time both First and last.

 Ah, now the parable makes sense too, doesn’t it?  Some worked 8 or 10 hours.  Others worked an hour and each was paid the same, one denarius. Everyone is exactly equal. Everyone is at the same time both First and last.

This is where it gets funny… usually, we completely miss Jesus point because we are looking through our particular set of glasses. We grumble that it is unfair because we ASSUME that we are among the long-term faithful who deserve more than those other people.  Jesus’ point is. God loves us all the same!

How long you have been a member, how faithful you are, how hard you work, the office you have held, and the amount you have donated don’t make you better than the 7th grader that just gave her life to Jesus at camp, or the homeless guy who has nothing, or the thief who stole an old lady’s life savings, or anyone else. We assume that we are among the faithful and hardest workers, the most deserving so when we see God loving others whom we believe to be undeserving, we scream “NO! That’s not fair!”

But that is missing Jesus point. He is teaching about the universal, unbelievable, incomprehensible, grace of God.  He is teaching that in God’s eyes there is no first or last, no rich or poor, no great for small, no first or last… only children in need of love. And just as the vineyard owner pays them all the same, God loves us all the same. No distinctions, no class ranks, no Mercedes for mother Theresa and pinto for pastor Terry thank goodness. No mansion for you and pup tent for your neighbor. No gold crown for church members and baseball cap for non-members.

Folks, God’s love is universal and equal. Nicodemus the Pharisee who followed Jesus, the disciples and the thief who up to his last breath mocked and spit upon Jesus and then asked Jesus to “remember him when he comes into his kingdom”… they all hear the same words.  Today you will be with me in paradise.  The lifelong Methodist, the missionary who died sharing the gospel, the preacher who just did his best but was always considered average, the drug addict who turns their life around, and the murderer who is converted just before he receives the lethal injection all hear exactly the same thing… “Well done good and faithful servant.”

Let me ask you something… who says we are among the first, the faithful, or the deserving anyway? When you place yourself in the parable, have you ever considered that in some way you might be among the last hired? Granted I would say you are among the finest people I have ever known and this is a great church doing great things, but if we can stop patting ourselves on the back long enough to hear what Jesus is saying, he is saying “God bless you for what you do, but don’t think that makes you better than anyone else.”  If we make the mistake of thinking we are God’s favorite (the first) … we can plan on being knocked down a couple of pegs because God loves us all just the same. The very fact that we can only imagine ourselves in the first group of those who deserve favor and extra reward is reason enough to question whether our self-inflating egos might actually make us among the least rather than the greatest.

If we can in any way see ourselves as the least or the last then our response to the parable would not be “NO! That’s not fair!” but rather “praise God for God’s wonderful grace.”

 How has this crazy idea changed us?  Over a lifetime of hearing it, I hope you are starting to believe it.  I am still working on it. Some days I believe God loves me the way I am, others it is harder to accept. 

 The other way it changes us is when we realize that God freely and completely loves us… we have to come face to face with the fact that God freely and completely loves our enemy too.  And not just our enemies, but those who have hurt us and never apologized, people who look different or think differently than we do. People who belong to every conceivable kind of church and those who belong to no church. Those who deserve it (or think they do) and those who do not (or we think they don’t). God loves each and every one of them…and each and every one of us just as we are.

I know, that’s not how we would to it. That’s not fair. That’s not the way the world would do it.  It is backward, upside down, inside out, and just plain nuts. But it was God’s crazy idea to die on the cross for the righteous and the unrighteous, for you, and me, and everyone we would consider unlovable.  That is the crazy love of God!

Please take out your index card. It says I (blank) but God loves me anyway.  Fill that in … it could be a habit you have, a personality trait, a deep dark secret of the past. Like I robbed a liquor store but God loves me anyway.  It is more likely something like I have anger issues, but God loves me anyway. Or I don’t treat my spouse well, or I am a racist, or I’m not sure I believe in God… but God loves me anyway. Those will be completely anonymous, but the ushers are collecting them in the noisy offering buckets and we will use them in a litany after this.

It is hard enough to say “God loves me anyway.”  But I want to make it just a little harder. On your know, grow, go sheet where it says, “God loves _______________. God help me to love them too.”  Fill in someone’s name that is really hard for you to love.  (You will not hand this in. this is for you.) If not a name maybe a group of people: immigrants, conservatives, liberals, homosexuals, blacks. Arabs, Muslims, you get the idea.  Fill that in for yourself.

When we get to the end of the litany we will have just a moment f a Korean style of prayer in which everyone prays an individual prayer out loud at the same time.  We will pray “God help me to accept that you love me anyway… and help me to love____(and we will all name our person or group)______ as you love them”  I promise you everyone will be praying their own, so no one will hear yours… even if they did… we are all together in the struggle to love.

L: Someone here ____________

P: But God loves you anyway.  (x 5-10)

L: God help me to accept that you love me anyway… and help me to love  _______ as you love them.

Crazy things Jesus said #4 Give and you will receive May 20, 2018 RUMC

Crazy things Jesus said #4

Give and you will receive

May 20, 2018 RUMC

How much would it cost me to get you to eat a worm?  Would you eat it for $1?  NO?  how about $100?  $1000?  In a recent survey, 26% of people said they wouldn’t consider eating a worm for less than $1000. 21%, however, said they would wolf down a worm for $300.

How much would it cost me to get you to shave your head? 59% said it would take $10,000.  What surprised me is the 41% who wouldn’t do it for $10,000.  Maybe I’m weird, but it wouldn’t cost anywhere near $10,000 to shave my head. 1 in 8 would commit murder for a  $million, 15% would shoplift for $1000, and 20% would flash a stranger for $10,000?  

Is there anything Americans won’t do for money? Your approach to money probably says more about you than anything else you do. Jesus knew that. He said, “where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth but treasures in heaven.” (Matt 5:24)

We live in a culture obsessed with money, the higher the salary the more important the job is perceived to be. The more expensive the car the better. Big houses, big 401k’s.  And those who don’t have those things should want them. The message of the culture is if you can’t afford a fancy vacation you are less of a person. If you can’t’ afford a fancy new car you are less important. If you get paid less than I do, we know who is more important. The chorus in our culture is   “Get, get, get,--grab, grab, grab-- more, more, more-- I want --I need --I have to have.”

But maybe it isn’t just us. I suspect every culture in history at some level experienced this same phenomenon. Greed and pride are part of human nature.  The bible is pretty clear about that, most famously in saying that “the love of money is the root of all evil.”  And Jesus taught about money a lot. 1 out of every 6 verses in Matthew, Mark, and Luke deals with money in one way or another. Of the 29 parables, Christ told 16 (just over ½) deal with a person’s relationship with their money.

Jesus knew money was important, but more importantly, our use of money is a pretty good thermometer to whether we are fundamentally greedy or generous people. And   Generosity, or the lack of generosity in all areas of life are good indicators of our spiritual health.       

 I think it is important to understand that generosity is bigger than money. In this passage, Jesus is talking about all of life, including money, but not limited to money. The best way I can explain this is to read Eugene Peterson’s version of the Bible called THE MESSAGE verse 31-38

 31-34 “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

 35-36 “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.

 37-38 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier.

 Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”

 Generosity begets generosity. That is the crazy economics of the kingdom of God.

•            The world says hang on to it or you’ll lose it. Jesus says give it away or you’ll lose it.

•            The world says to treat others the way they treat you, Jesus treats them the way you WANT THEM TO TREAT YOU if you expect to receive love and forgiveness.

•            The world says the righteous judge the unrighteous, Jesus says Give away your right to judge or you will be judged.

It sounds crazy, ludicrous, impossible. But which is upside down? Are we being more godlike when we are shouting “mine, mine, mine,” or when we are generously sharing whatever we have, money, time, forgiveness, grace, joy hope, or love?  The more you give the more you will receive and the more you receive the more you can give, and the more you give the more you can receive, and pretty soon there is this a crazy generous, gracious, kingdom experience of being filled so full and so fast that we can’t give ourselves away fast enough to keep from overflowing.

This is one of those crazy teachings of Jesus that doesn’t make sense until you do it. 

 Let me introduce a term I heard this week. Cheap giving.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer talked about cheap grace as the “preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.”  Cheap giving is giving without any sacrifice. Cheap giving is giving from the leftovers… or giving IF there are any leftovers: Leftover money at the end of the month, leftover time at the end of the week, leftover love given to those whom it is easy to love, leftover energy if we have anything left at the end of the day.

God will not be satisfied with cheap giving.  God will not be satisfied with leftovers.  Jesus is teaching that God expects nothing less than God gives…crazy, unbelievable, incomprehensible extravagant generosity That includes money, yes, but it also includes, time, energy, and love. Our whole lives are to be characterized by extravagant generosity rather than easy giving.

Now I want to stop there and reject what is called the prosperity gospel.  I am not saying that if you give an extra $1000 to the church, God will bless you with a new car or miraculous deposits of money into your bank account. Do those things happen, occasionally, but that is selfishly bribing God for our own benefit, which is definitely not extravagant generosity.

The rewards Jesus is talking about may include material stuff, but may also include less tangible things like joy, peace, hope, love, and grace. We live our lives modeled after God’s own extravagantly generous character, and that is enough.

So, what are some examples of extravagant generosity you have seen around here? <<<<<     >>>>>>

There are some remarkable examples… but I have to admit It is a little harder to identify growth in extravagant generosity around here than it is to identify how we have grown in love or mountain moving faith.

Let me say, this message was planned two months ago but it turned out to be very timely. The ongoing financial struggle in this church has one and only one cause. Fear. Fear of generosity. While some of us give generously, there are way too many folks to hold back out of fear and only give begrudgingly when the situation becomes critical as it has this month.  That is cheap giving… it requires no sacrifice. We need t become extravagant givers whatever that means for your situation.

A personal testimony. My salary is public information.  You can all look it up.  When we came we started tithing for the first time in our lives and it has changed the way I look at what I have, it has changed my relationship with money, and it has taught me that generosity really is a spiritual issue. Try it out by tithing or giving proportionally on a regular basis.  You will grow spiritually and if enough folks do that, I guarantee the church will never have to go begging to meet expenses again. When there is an appeal we see extravagant generosity… but we need to make it a habit or a lifestyle, rather than the exception.

But there is something more important than money. Making up a deficit in the cash flow is easy compared to sustaining ministry.   I have been preaching “every member in ministry” for over two years now, the leadership team has been trying to model it and encourage it, but I just don’t know if it has caught on.  There are some isolated people who have taken up the challenge and run with it. Thank you! But most have not. Too many of us give out of the extra or leftover time… I am thankful for what they do, but it is cheap giving… it requires no sacrifice.  Way too often, I hear “I’ve done my part.” Sorry, but that’s crazy and not in a good way. There is no such thing as even coming close to having “done your part” for the kingdom of God as long as we are breathing. That’s not even easy giving. It’s just cheap.

I’m not going o belabor this because you know what I am talking about. But let me tell you a couple of stories.

We started Family Food and Fun this year. A new program, new excitement and a great opportunity to minister to families. We had a great new director.  The director notified me several months ago that they will never be director again because they are tired of begging people to help and being turned down with a flat “no.” We are losing a great volunteer and the ministry suffers because of cheap giving.

How many years have you had porkburgers in the park? A lot. This year we will only have a stand at the church. Why? Well, we can point to competition, and we can point to age, but really it comes down to there are only a handful of folks who end up doing it.  The vast majority could, but simply will not take a couple of hours out of a whole holiday to be part of the one thing the church has consistently done year after year that reminds the community that we are here. Sure, the money is handy but the visibility is the important part of the porkburger stand and that will be decreased this year.

That’s enough examples but you know what I mean and can probably think of your own examples. I leave that as a challenge to all of you.

 The kingdom of God is a kingdom of extravagant generosity. God’s generosity to us… our generosity to God and neighbor… which encourages others to be generous to us …which feeds into God’s generosity… which calls for our generosity and round and round we go.

I chose to stick with the series rather than preach Pentecost this year… but as I studied I realized that this IS a Pentecost sermon. Listen to this description of the early church after the holy spirit was manifest on Pentecost.

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

They did it with glad and generous hearts… why… because the holy spirit empowered it. Luke could not be clearer that extravagant generosity is the work of the Holy Spirit. 

So, my friends, we are a work in progress.  We have a ways to go but that is OK… that is  OK because God has already generously poured upon us the gift of extravagant generosity on Pentecost and by the Holy Spirit in our midst.

Acts reads:                        ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions,

    and your old men shall dream dreams.

Go, chase your visions, and dream your dreams of being a holy spirit powered extravagantly generous church. You can do it… or rather the Holy Spirit can do it .. or rather the holy spirit has already done it… and we just have to live into that extravagant and sometimes crazy generosity that comes with being part of the kingdom of God.

Crazy things Jesus said #3 You can move mountains May 12, 2018 RUMC

Crazy things Jesus said #3

You can move mountains

May 12, 2018 RUMC

A small congregation in the foothills of the Great Smokies built a new sanctuary on a piece of land willed to them by a church member. Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building.

Until the church doubled the size of the parking lot, they would not be able to use the new sanctuary. Unfortunately, the church with its undersized parking lot had used every inch of their land except for the mountain against which it had been built. In order to build more parking spaces, they would have to move the mountain out of the backyard.

Undaunted, the pastor announced the next Sunday morning that he would meet that evening with all members who had “mountain moving faith.” They would hold a prayer session asking God to remove the mountain from the backyard and to somehow provide enough money to have it paved and painted before the scheduled opening dedication service the following week.

At the appointed time, 24 of the congregation’s 300 members assembled for prayer. They prayed for nearly three hours. At ten o’clock the pastor said the final “Amen.” “We’ll open next Sunday as scheduled,” he assured everyone. “God has never let us down before, and I believe He will be faithful this time too.”

The next morning, as he was working in his study there, came a loud knock at his door. When he called “come in,” a rough looking construction foreman appeared, removing his hard hat as he entered.

“Excuse me, Reverend. I’m from Acme Construction Company over in the next county. We’re building a huge new shopping mall over there and we need some fill dirt. Would you be willing to sell us a chunk of that mountain behind the church? We’ll pay you for the dirt we remove and pave all the exposed area free of charge if we can have it right away. We can’t do anything else until we get the dirt in and allow it to settle properly.”

The little church was dedicated the next Sunday as originally planned and there were far more members with “mountain moving faith” on opening Sunday than there had been the previous week!

When Jesus said “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.” the crowds must have thought he was crazy. I doubt that they did the math, but if anyone did they would know that Mount Everest which is the highest, but not necessarily the largest mountain conservatively weighs 7 and a half trillion pounds.  That’s half a ton for every man woman and child on earth.

That sounds absolutely foolish, ludicrous, impossible and just plain crazy.

Obviously, Jesus is not talking about moving literal mountains.

Let’s look at the story to see if we can gain a better understanding of what he was saying. Let’s turn to Matthew chapter 17, which is on page 18 of the New Testament in your pew Bibles.

Jesus, Peter, James, and John came down from seeing Jesus transfigured.  You remember that story where Jesus glowed with radiant divine light ant mosses and Elijah appeared with him.?  You’ll find it at the beginning of Chapter 17.

When they came down from that mountaintop experience Jesus is immediately hit by a man who says your disciples weren’t able to help my son, can you.?

Beginning in verse 14 23 read ^“When they came to the crowd, a man came to him, knelt before him, ¹⁵ and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; he often falls into the fire and often into the water. ¹⁶ And I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 

I don’t think he was trying to make anyone look bad, but he was going through the appeals process to try to get help for his son.

Even though I don’t think he was trying to make trouble, boy he did, didn’t he.  Jesus let loose on the disciples and the crowd spewing impatience and frustration everywhere. “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly.”

Can you imagine how the disciples’ heads must have hung? They must have been felt whipped by Jesus sharp words.  They were probably demoralized and discouraged.  Not to mention embarrassed. This happened, after all, right in front of the crowd. I would have been so embarrassed!  I can take criticism, but do it one on one or in a small group.  Don’t call me out in a crowd. That just crushes my spirit.

So there were the disciples with their heads dropping from the tongue lashing Jesus gave them.  But they were students.  They wanted to learn. So they asked, “What were we doing wrong. Teach us how to do better.”

What Jesus had to say made them go from drooping heads to dropped jaws. “Nothing will be impossible for you.”  They went from “faithless and perverse” in one sentence to  “Nothing will be impossible for you” in the next.

Jesus answers their question by saying, “you couldn’t do it  ‘Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.’ ”

When some people set out to change the world, they set out with armies, or political machines, or hundreds of thousands of people rallied around a common cause.

But sometimes change comes from the smallest of things. A pine nut that happens to fall in the crack of a boulder can split the boulder in half.

An apple falling on Isaac Newton’s head changed our understanding of the world.

A conviction that I should not be treated differently because of the color of my skin has certainly changed our culture for the better.

A little inspiration like maybe we can use electricity to make our lives better has transformed human life in more ways than any of the early scientists and inventors could have dreamed.

But none of that can move mountains. There is something more powerful than any of those: faith. FAITH  Faith is believing that God is, trusting that God can, and relying on the fact that  God will act in our lives and our world. Relying on God is not easy.  To rely on God is to bet our lives that God is, God can, and God will act.

Jesus is saying that when we go beyond believing that God is, and go beyond trusting that God can, and when we get to depending on God to act - or relying on God to act - or staking our lives on God’s action… that is when mountains move, rocks split open, the inner workings of the creation are revealed, prejudice is defeated,  and life is made better.

If we go beyond believing, go beyond trusting, to the point of having faith.. even just a little faith… amazing things happen. Mountains are moved and nothing is impossible.

When I think back on our time together I ask myself what mountains has God moved? What have amazing things happened? What has happened that so clearly exceeded our ability, that the only explanation is that God acted?

I think of a few of which I am most proud:

In 2007 would anyone have guessed that we would dissolve Sunday school and start LIGHT and see hundreds of children and families touched by the ministry of this church. If I had offered you a bet that there would be almost 100 people there the first night, how many of you would have thought that would be easy money? When we fully rely on God mountains are moved and nothing is impossible.  

When we started Homes 4 Haiti, if I would have bet you that we could buy four of those houses, and counting this one 5 safety homes… how many of you would have thought I was off my rocker. When we fully rely on God mountains are moved and nothing is impossible.

If I would have told you that we could send 20 youth and adults on a weeklong mission trip how many of you would have laughed at me. When we fully rely on God mountains are moved and nothing is impossible..

What are some of your favorite mountain moving memories and nothing is impossible. <<<When we fully rely on God mountains are moved and nothing is impossible. >>>

Let’s look at the present. If I would have told you 6 months ago that 25% of the leadership team would be about 40 or younger what would you have said?… let me tell you When we fully rely on God mountains are moved. …mountains are being moved and nothing is impossible.

If I told you last year that we would have a children’s church and paid nursery attendant, what would you have said?  We are almost there. When we fully rely on God mountains are moved. …Mountains are being moved and nothing is impossible.

Let’s look at the future. If I told you that by this time next you will see a few new young families in the church, and in 5 years you will be trying to figure out what to do with all the children… what would you say? Let me tell you when we fully rely on God mountains will be moved. …even today mountains are being moved and nothing is impossible.

I believe that betting your lives on becoming a church for all generations where young families are proud to invite their friends and the elderly are loved, respected, and cared for will move mountains. … If you bet your life on that-- whatever that means (if it means backing up our young leaders, it means a remodeling project, coffee in the sanctuary, additional staff, volunteering for something you have never tried before) if you are willing to bet everything on that vision, God is going to move mountains and nothing is impossible.

If I told you that the outreach you have started with pancake breakfasts, bluegrass festivals, GR8, the preschool building, service projects and more would turn this church around and transform this community… what would you say?  I’m telling you that betting your life on continued outreach will not only bear fruit, it will move mountains. When we fully rely on God mountains are moved.  And they are already moving.

I have been using a phrase Fully rely on God. Some of you may know this already.

FROG… fully rely on God.

I have cards for you to post  on your refrigerator, or bathroom mirror or desk.

When we fully rely on God mountains are moved and nothing is impossible. 

Crazy things Jesus Said Take up your cross ad follow me. 5/6/18

Crazy things Jesus Said

Take up your cross and follow me.

5/6/18

How many of you have a cross with you today: either jewelry, or in your pocket or on a tie, or even a tattoo?

And how many have one or more crosses at home? Just about everyone. Crosses are everywhere. And everyone knows what it means. When we see a cross we know that it is a Christian symbol. It is a Christian building, person, book or whatever…

 There are dozens of different styles of crosses: budded crosses, and Armenian crosses, and Celtic crosses, and thieves’ crosses. The different types of crosses are really an interesting thing to study. But they all go back to one.  One cross that wasn’t so pretty. It wasn’t very fancy; in fact, it was very utilitarian. That one cross was not one that inspired a warm feeling, or hope, or love, but mostly it inspired fear… and that’s the way the Romans wanted it. The cross was a deterrent to bad behavior as much as punishment for breaking the law.

No one wanted to die on a cross. So Jesus invitation to “take up your cross and follow me” was not a very attractive invitation. It was not an invitation to a Mediterranean cruise, or fame, or wealth, or honor, or anything else that would attract followers. This is one of those sayings of Jesus that everyone agrees is absolutely original because no one trying to gather a following would make such an outlandish request. “Come on in. We have a cross waiting for you.” Is not a very good recruiting tool. In fact, it is one of those things that Jesus said that was kind of crazy.

 Remember we are looking at what I am calling the crazy things Jesus said. You know like unbelievable, incredible, or unworkable. I believe it is these crazy ideas that make us who we are as disciples and as the church.

This particular saying of Jesus was so important to, the early church, that it is recorded in the bible 4 times. There are not very many sayings of Jesus that are recorded 4 times. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have Jesus saying the same thing with Luke adding the word DAILY: “take up your cross DAILY.”

And then 5 chapters later Luke says the reverse: "Whoever does NOT carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” In one statement we are completely “in” because we carry the cross. In the other, we are completely “out” because we don’t. That makes taking up the “Cross” the core issue for discipleship. You can’t be partly right and partly wrong about your cross. You either carry it or you don’t.

 I want to correct 2 misconceptions right up front. First, the popular saying. “I guess it is a cross I have to bear” is not at all what Jesus was saying. When we say “It is a cross I have to bear” we are usually talking about something difficult that is forced upon us. Jesus is clear that the cross is not forced upon us. It is a choice we make to voluntarily and willingly deny ourselves and be a disciple, or not.

 Second, the cross of Christ and the cross of the follower are not the same cross. By Jesus’ cross we are saved. He went to the cross to destroy sin and give life. That is done once and for all, and it is a good thing because we don’t have the ability to do that anyway. We are not saviors. Our cross is very different.

Whereas Jesus’ cross was once and for all, we take up our cross every day. Our cross is not a cross of salvation, it does not pay for any sins. Our cross is our life of service to Jesus and our brothers and sisters. It is the living out of the greatest commandments: loving God and loving neighbor… it is the difference between believing in Jesus, and being a disciple.

 Let’s look at Mark chapter 8 New Testament page 8. We begin reading in verse 31: “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.”

Peter began to scold Jesus. Maybe he said something like, “You don’t have to do that.” Or “Don’t let that happen.” Or “I’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you.” Whatever he said, Peter was essentially tempting Jesus to think of himself first. He was trying to convince Jesus to deny who he was and refuse God’s plan. He wanted Jesus to take the easy way out. Peter wanted Jesus to think about himself and his friends first.

 And it was tempting. If it was not tempting, Jesus would not have replied in verse 33,

“Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” It WAS tempting for Jesus to think about himself first, (he was after all human) but Jesus recognized temptation for what it was. It was selfish and it was against God’s ways. He said (to the temptation I believe) get out of my sight, I don’t want you here.

Then he began to teach. “You know, guys you’ll face the same temptation. You’ll be tempted to think only of yourself or to think of yourself first. But don’t do it. And in verse 34 he drops the bomb, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Jesus teaches that to be his follower is to deny selfishness. As disciples, our lives are not about what WE want. Not what WE need. Not what would make US comfortable. Not what would make US happy. To be a disciple is to give up self-centeredness and live lives that are centered on loving God and loving neighbor. The question for the disciple is not, “What do I want to do today”, but “how can I love God and neighbor a little better today.” How can I love as Jesus loved, accept others as Jesus accepted them, share my faith as Jesus shared it, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, and provide comfort to the sick and hurting.

Jesus goes on in verse 35…

 “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” When we hear this we think to “lose our lives” means to die. That is not really the sense here. To save something is to hold tightly to it. If we hold tightly and selfishly on to our lives, we don’t have a hand free to receive God’s abundant life and we will miss it. But if we hold life loosely, giving our time away to God here, our love to neighbor there, giving our resources generously to this project here, and our gifts to help those people over there, we will experience abundant life in God.

 To play it safe is to miss the opportunity to truly live as disciples of Jesus and children of God. To spend our lives freely loving God and neighbor is to discover true abundance of life and grace.

What happens if you catch a frog and keep it safe by sealing it in a Tupperware bowl? By trying to save it we kill the very thing we were trying to preserve.

If on the other hand, you take it down to the pond and let it go, what happens? You may be blessed with an abundance frogs.

This is the same idea. It sounds crazy, I know, but it is a law of life. If you never go anywhere you’ll never get anywhere. If you don’t do anything you won’t be anything. If you don’t love, you’ll never know what love is. If you don’t give you can’t enjoy receiving. And if you don’t pick up the cross of serving Jesus you’ll never become a disciple.

It is one thing to believe… but believing in Jesus gets us nowhere… being a disciple means taking up the cross of loving and serving in this life is to experience life eternal today.

 So let’s play a game. It is called “Who is the disciple?”

 Who is the disciple, the one who says I believe, or the one who shares their belief with a neighbor? (Click for answer)

 Who is the disciple, the one who knows God loves them or the one who shares that love with others? (Click for answer)

 Who is the disciple the one who never misses sitting in their pew on Sunday, or the one who might occasionally miss a Sunday but says, “I have to work Sunday morning, but I’ll cook on Wednesday night” “I’ll visit in the nursing home this week” “I’ll bring in a box of goodies for Operation Christmas child next week.” (Click for answer)

 Who is the disciple, the person who has memorized the Bible and keeps it to themselves, or the one who uses that knowledge to teach children about Jesus? (Click for answer)

 Who is the disciple, the one who says I’m too busy, or the one who says “I’m really busy but I want to be part of that.” “let me help with that.” “Where do I sign up for that?” “How do I get involved in that?” Or “I have an idea of how we can share God’s love with someone.”

 Who is the disciple? The one who says let someone else do that, or the one who says, “Here I am Lord, send me?”

And it is a continuum. There are times in life when it is all we can do just to get by, and those are seasons when we receive from those who are giving. If you are in one of those times God’s bless you. Let us serve you. But most of life is not made up of those times.

 No one is too young. No one is too old. No one is too inexperienced, and no one has done their share. And those who think they are too busy probably forgot the part about denying themselves, and they are trying to squeeze the cross into a life that is already full of themselves. It is a matter of deciding who comes first in our lives. But many walk by and leave the cross to be picked up by someone else.

In the last 11 years, we have done a lot. I think of things like “be the church day” the thousands of hours given to teaching children at LIGHT over the years, Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army dinners, the nativity scene at miracle on main, the “Marymobile.” Those are times when folks really stepped up to the plate and denied themselves and took up the cross to serve and love for Jesus. What are some of your favorite memories of serving?

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It might sound crazy to say “If you want to be my disciple you have to take up your cross and follow me.” But it is really pretty simple. Discipleship is not a spectator sport. You are either all in or you’re not. Pew potatoes need not apply.

Crazy things Jesus Said “Love your enemy” April 29, 2018 RUMC

Crazy things Jesus Said

“Love your enemy”

April 29, 2018

RUMC

Was Jesus Crazy? Now I don’t use that word lightly. We have to be careful with the word “crazy” because it has too often been used against people. I am not talking about mental illness today.

  But if you read some of the things that Jesus said and the things Christians believe, especially if you take them out of context, you can understand that they sound absurd, nonsensical, preposterous, impractical and unworkable. In other words, in popular language, they frankly sound kind of crazy.

From the perspective of those who watched Jesus from the crowds, some of the things Jesus said sounded crazy.

 Even his own family thought Jesus’ behavior seemed a little crazy. Do you remember the story about Jesus’ family thinking that he was deranged? Check out Mark 3:21 on page 37 of your pew Bible. “Then he went home; 20 and the crowd came together again so that they could not even eat. 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”   Jesus’ own family thought he was not just ridiculous, they thought he was mentally ill. Perhaps even dangerous to himself or others. They came out to restrain him.

 The early church experienced the same reaction to the gospel message. Paul wrote: “the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” 

Think about it… how radically crazy is it to think that

•           God would take on the flesh of a man?

•           It is even crazier that God could die.

•           It is even crazier that God was willing to die.

•           You might think the craziest thing is the world is that God actually DID die… on a cross.

•           Except there is still one thing crazier than that, God did it all because God loved sinful and broken people like you and me. From a completely objective perspective, Jesus said some of the most outrageous things in the world.

But every great reformer was thought to be crazy.

•           Galileo was branded a heretic for saying that the planets revolve around the sun.

•           Leonardo DaVinci and the Wright brothers were thought to be crazy because they had this idea that people could build a flying machine.

•           People though Edison was crazy for wanting to bring electricity into their houses.

•           The American revolutionaries were crazy.

•           Nelson Mandela was crazy for thinking that apartheid was wrong.

Get it. Every change started out sounding crazy to someone.

I contend that it is those radically crazy things Jesus said, that best define who we are as Christians and as the church.

Those crazy sounding sayings of Jesus are the things that have become most transformative in my life, your life and, in our world.

 Paul even followed up his sentence “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 

Many of us have grown up hearing these crazy sayings, so they don’t seem so crazy. Others read them and don’t think about them very hard, so they don’t seem so crazy. I want to spend the next few weeks, however, thinking about some of the crazy things Jesus taught, and how they have shaped our lives and our 11 years together, and maybe we’ll see how they can push us forward into the future.

The first saying is LOVE YOUR ENEMY.  Who in their right mind can do that?

We read this crazy saying in Matthew 5 and Luke 6 in their account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In both gospels “LOVE YOUR ENEMY” comes shortly after the beatitudes which include such blessings as “blessed are the merciful” and “Blessed are the peacemakers.” So “LOVE YOUR ENEMY” is not at all out of place in this context.

 Now it was standard Jewish thought that we are supposed to love God and love neighbor. That is a combination of Deuteronomy 6:4, which we call the Shema (Hear O Israel the Lord your God is one.), and Leviticus 19:18 where Israel is commanded to love their neighbor. Jesus takes this normal Jewish teaching and pushes it over the edge to crazy when he says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Some might say, right there, he went from preaching to meddling, but Jesus is serious.

Because the sermon on the mount is a very down to earth, practical message, we know that Jesus is not just spouting theory here. He really does expect us to love our enemies and he goes on to explain in

•           Matthew that if you only love your neighbors, you are no different than the Tax Collectors or Pagans.

•           In Luke, he is very practical and says if a soldier takes your coat, give them your cloak too. If they ask you to carry their pack for a mile, carry it for two.

Jesus just breaks down the wall between neighbor and enemy and commands us to love everyone.

 Later in Luke is the passage we read today, a Pharisee stands up to challenge Jesus about how to inherit eternal life. Jesus points him to love God and love neighbor just as I said; traditional Jewish teachings. But he pushes Jesus to define neighbor. That is when Jesus goes on to tell this great story that tears down the wall between neighbor and enemy.

A man was on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. We have talked before about that 17-mile walk from Jerusalem to Jericho that drops 2000 feet in elevation. It was not unusual for people to walk back and forth, but it was dangerous. A man was walking that road, maybe he was a priest, maybe a teacher, maybe a merchant, maybe a poor shepherd. But as he is walking he is robbed, beaten and left to die.

You know the story. The priest walks by on the other side of the road maybe we excuse him because he did not want to be defiled by the man. The lawyer too goes out of his way keep as much distance as possible between him and the injured man. We won’t make any excuses for him.

Then comes along the Samaritan… if this were a melodrama we would play the dramatic music for the entry of the evil villain. Samaritans were hated by the Jews. They were outsiders. They thought they could worship on mount Nebo instead of Jerusalem! As the villain twists his handlebar mustache and lets out an evil sounding chuckle… the man is starting to look down the road to see if anyone else is coming … when suddenly the villain walks over and helps the man! He climbed right over that wall between neighbor and enemy and perhaps saved the man’s life.  He risked his own life because he didn’t know if the man had friends hiding in the bushes. Then he spent his own money when he took him to the inn. And the wall between enemy and neighbor, not only crumbles, it crashes down into 100 billion pieces and not even “all the kings’ horses and all the kings’ men could put the wall together again.”

It would have been hard enough to swallow this lesson if Jesus had made the injured man a Samaritan, and the helper a regular Jew. But to have the Samaritan outshine the priest and the Levite in love was crazy. In Romans 12:10 Paul entreats us to “outdo one another in showing love.” And that love is not just for the insiders, but it is for everyone and anyone who is inside or outside of what we consider our safe little circle of neighbors.

When I came 11 years ago, you described yourself as a “family.” And you were. The church as a family has its good side in taking care of one another, nurturing one another etc. Most of your ministries were focused on others in the family. Our children, our adults, our youth. And you did a good job of that.

When we started to focus on the fact that the only wall between “us” and “them” was in our imagination, things started to change. We are still a family in the best sense of the word, loving one another, laughing and crying together … but now we are so much more than that.

Now I wouldn’t say that you ever considered anyone an “enemy,” But there were “insiders” and “outsiders.”  I know because I was an “outsider.” There was “us” and there was “them.”

•           Get this… only 3 out of the 18 people going on the mission trip this year are from families who were part of this church 11 years ago… all because we reached across the wall that once divided “us” from “them” and showed them love to make “them” part of “us.”

•           The attendance at our Wednesday night ministry has at times been larger than the Sunday morning attendance. This year it is a little lower, but at 45 people average it is close. The vast majority of those people come from families who were “them” 11 years ago. Now, because we reached across the wall that divides us from our neighbors, they are “us!”

•           We have done service projects for folks who used to be “them” but we reached out in love and made them “us.”

•           We were the driving force behind the original Homes for Haiti project which reached across denominational lines to those UCC “thems,” and the Presbyterian “thems,” and even the unchurched “thems” so that together we could show love to families in Haiti.

•           For the first time ever, the African Children’s choir sang in Reinbeck because we invited them. That was a challenge for some of you because they don’t look or sound like “us.” But by the end of the week, we reached out in love and make them “us’es.”

•           We moved the Easter Egg hunt from being a city event to being a church-sponsored event, and twice now we have reached across all generational lines and gifted a whole bunch of “thems” with at least temporary “us'ness.”

•           And of course there was the “us” vs “them” feeling created around the school district changes, and I don’t know if you realized the toll it took on churches and pastors, but we were the one church that stood firm in the belief that Gladbrook is not “them”… we are all “us.” We had Ash Wednesday with the UMC, we continued to work together on baccalaureate, supported the school staff, sponsored the GR8 festival, I helped organize the candlelight vigil at which I saw many of you. Reaching across those dividing lines clearly invited “them” to be part of the “us.”

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 This is where you get to think back too… those are only a few places I thought about… where else can you think of that we have we reached out to “them” and treated them as “us?”

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 It may sound crazy to say LOVE YOUR ENEMY, but we took it on as a dare. Jesus dared us to LOVE OUR ENEMY… to break down the walls that divide “us” from any “them” we could think of. And we have.

Are we there yet? No. There are still “thems” out there but we have proven that we are not afraid of “them” …“they” don’t need to be afraid of “us.” We are still family but we have grown our idea of family to include not just our brothers and sisters, but cousin joe 13 times removed, and our great, great, great aunt Sophia, and all of our little nieces and nephews even though we aren’t quite sure how they are related. Our family has grown from “us” to “us.”All of us as God’s children in Reinbeck and around the world.

LOVE YOUR ENEMY may sound crazy to those outside, but we know, don’t we. We know that loving those who are different, those who are strange, those with whom we may disagree, those whom we simply do not know, those who are on the other side of any kind of boundary is exactly what Jesus wanted us to do. Crazy? Maybe, but it has made us who we are and who we are today is more like Jesus.