Mary's Song

Mary’s Song
Here we are in the third week of Advent…Advent is the season before Christmas in the church…Advent is the season of waiting…waiting for the birth of Jesus. This week as we continue to wait for Christmas, we turn our attention to another song in the Gospel of Luke. Last week, we heard the song of Zechariah—Zechariah & Elizabeth are the parents of John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin. John was the forerunner to the Messiah—he proclaimed loudly of the coming Messiah. When John was born, Zechariah sang a song dedicating John to the work of the prophet and praising God for what God had done.
Luke tells us in the 6th month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, that Elizabeth’s cousin Mary receives some very interesting news from an angel of the Lord…The angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her that she will have a child…But who exactly is this Mary?
Well, Mary is betrothed to marry Joseph—a carpenter. So, we can be sure that Mary is not a queen or a princess or really anyone of high class stature. And she’s from Nazareth…Nazareth was known for being one of the poorest regions and had the stigma from the surrounding communities of being the “bad side of the tracks”…When people ask the question, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” They aren’t being sarcastic or witty…they are really asking if there is anything positive that can come from such a vile place…The place that Mary lives. So, we know that Mary is one of the poorest of all.
The other thing that we know is about the betrothal…In that time the age of marriage was between 11-13. Mary was probably around the age of 13 when she was engaged to be married to Joseph. Shortly after her engagement was when she learned that she was pregnant with Jesus.
The annunciation, when the angel told Mary that she would have this child—Mary took a great risk in saying “Let it be with me”…She was unmarried, engaged to be married…When she started to show her pregnancy, there were going to be questions and accusations…Her whole family would be disgraced and her fiancée would have an option to take her in or throw her out. Joseph clearly knew that there was no way that he could be the father of this baby…So that left only one option—Mary clearly had an affair. So, Joseph could legally have cast her out with nothing and even more than that—have her put to death. By saying to the angel, “Let it be with me according to your word,” Mary knew the great risks that she was facing—an almost sure death. But she also knew the risks if she told the angel that she wouldn’t carry this child…
This was no small thing that Mary did—Mary gave her whole life to God—she put her whole trust in God’s grace and that God would remain true to God’s word. If this was God’s son that she was carrying, she had to trust that God would care for her and for Jesus.
This baby was no ordinary baby—this baby is the Messiah…Which we know means something very different. This baby was born to die…This baby was born to take away the sins of the world through his blood. Did Mary know all of this? Did she understand what it meant that this baby would be born? Did she know? We can know for sure that Mary certainly looked on this time much differently at the foot of the cross than at the manger…
But that’s getting a little ahead of the story, because our passage for this morning is the song that Mary sings of gratitude of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do. In the Greek language, which is what this was originally written in, the verb tenses shift from the past to the present and to the future. Which is not all that unsimilar from what we know of God…God is the past, present, and future—God has no beginning or no end. So, when Mary sings about what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do—it’s really not that much of a surprise because that’s who God is!
Mary sings over and over about the lowly being raised up and powerful being scattered. It’s a theme that is recurring all throughout Jesus’ life & ministry…All throughout the story of God. The ones who are considered to be the least are favored in God’s eyes. Mary was one of the most lowly people and she carried God’s son…It’s not the first story of God using and unexpected person to share God’s message of love and grace…God uses unexpected people all the time!
Mary’s song ends with the reminder of God’s covenant with God’s people through Abraham…Which is also a reminder to those who have heard the story would remember their part within the covenant—they are blessed to be a blessing. Mary was blessed to be a blessing—she gave birth to Jesus.
Mary is an amazing person to learn from—in the face of some incredible risks, she told God that she was willing to be God’s servant and do whatever it took to follow God. If we could only have faith like Mary…What would the world look like? What would it look like if we were like Mary and put aside our own comforts, our own lives even to follow God and to do what God calls us to do? Mary gave up everything because God asked her to—she faced death, rejection, alienation, suffering…just to do what God called her to do. God continues to make that call to all of us—to put ourselves aside to do what God calls us to do.
It’s not an easy place to be and it’s not something that our society teaches. Our society tells us to look out for number one and take care of yourself first before thinking about anyone else. And God’s message is counter to that—God says think of “ME” first, and I’ll take care of you. It’s not comfortable to have to rely on someone other than ourselves and yet it’s what God calls us to do… Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when The first tree said, 'Someday I hope to be a great Treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver And precious gems. I could be decorated with an Intricate carving and
everyone would see the beauty.'
Then the second tree said, 'Someday I will be a Mighty ship. I will take Kings and queens across the Waters and sail to the corners of the world. People Will feel safe in me because of the strength of my Hull .'
Finally the third tree said, 'I want to grow to be The tallest and straightest Tree in the forest. People Will see me on top of the hill, look up to my branches, And think of the heavens and God and how close
to Them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all. Time and people will always remember me.'
After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said, 'This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter, and he began cutting it down. The Tree
was happy, because he knew the carpenter would Make him into
a treasure chest.
At the second tree the woodsman said, 'This looks like A strong tree. I will be able to sell it to the shipyard.' The second tree was happy Because he knew he was on His way to becoming a mighty ship.
When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree Was frightened because he knew that if they cut him Down his dreams would not come true. One of the men Said, 'I don't need anything special from my tree, I'll Take this one,' and he cut it down.
When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was Made into a feed box for animals. He was then placed in A barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he Had prayed for.
The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing Boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying Kings had come to an end.
The third tree was cut into large pieces, and left alone In the dark.
The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams.
Then one day, a man and woman came to the barn. She gave Birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box That was made from the first tree. The man wished that he Could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would Have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event And knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time.
Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from The second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and The tree didn't think it was strong enough to keep the men Safe. The men woke the
sleeping man, and He stood and said 'Peace' and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew That it had carried the King of Kings in its boat.
Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets as the people mocked the man who was carrying it. When they came to a stop, the man was nailed To the tree and raised in the air to die at the top Of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to Realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top Of the hill and be as close to God as was possible, Because Jesus had been
crucified on it.

Sometimes it takes putting aside what we think is best to do what it is that God thinks is best…Like Mary did—putting aside our own selfish desires and our own selfish thoughts in order to do what it is that God calls us to do?
What does God call us? To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world…To share the message of love and grace that is found within the message of the Gospel. That message of love and grace shines through Mary’s story as she felt the grace of God in her womb and watched her child grow up. She saw what God’s love could do as Jesus was crucified on the cross…Mary’s story is an example of the Gospel…But her life isn’t the only example…Your life should be an example of that story as well…Are you a living example of the Gospel message? Do you show love to others? Do you let God’s grace shine through your own life? Do you tell others about your faith in God? Do you put yourself aside in order to do all those things? God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly…God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich empty away…Does your soul magnify the Lord?
We are blessed to be a blessing…This Advent season let us remember that as we celebrate the birth of Jesus—and celebrate that birth by remembering whose birth we are celebrating—that Christmas is not our birthday, but it’s Jesus’ birthday…That our life is for God…My soul magnifies the Lord…

Zechariah's Song

Zechariah’s Song
The season of Advent is 4 weeks long…Advent is the season of waiting…It’s not Christmas yet as we wait for the birth of Jesus…Now, we of course know the whole story—the story of the baby that was born. But until Christmas comes, we wait…And our waiting isn’t quite as long as it must have seemed for the people who were waiting for the Messiah to come.
One of the things that is interesting to point out in all of the Gospels is that not much time is spent on Jesus’ birth…The Gospels of Matthew & Luke are the only two gospels that share anything about Jesus’ birth. In the gospel of Luke, where our passage comes from today…The birth of Jesus is told in 21 verses. The birth of Jesus’ cousin, John—known more commonly as John the Baptist, is told in 24 verses. Luke spends more time talking about the birth of John than the birth of Jesus.
John’s birth was one of miracles…The angel Gabriel came to Elizabeth and Elizabeth was told that she would have a baby. Elizabeth had been without child for so long that she was in advanced age, that it must have been a surprise to her when the angel told her she would have a baby, but she accepted this good news with excitement…Zechariah, well Zechariah on the other hand had another reaction…Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband was in such disbelief and so surprised by this news! He just didn’t believe that it was possible. Now if there’s anything that we can learn throughout history is that one should always believe that God will do what God says God will do…
A baby was something that Elizabeth & Zechariah had been wanting for a long time, but had given up hope that it was even possible. Maybe you’ve felt like that before…There was something that you wanted so desperately but had given up hope that it was possible and then it just happens! And Zechariah was completely out of the loop with it…An angel came to him and told him that Elizabeth was going to have a baby…Exactly what they had been wanting…And Zechariah’s reaction was not one of joy, but one of disbelief and anger…How is this possible? No one consulted me on this? No one made sure this was okay with me? This is not happening—Elizabeth is old! And I was not there for this decision! Oh Zechariah is upset! But here’s what happens…The angel tells Zechariah what this baby means—that this baby will be the forerunner for the messiah…That this is a joyful thing and that he should be excited and grateful for the gift that God is giving them…But Zechariah doesn’t stop…So, then it comes…The angel says…Hey, I was there—I know the whole story, what you clearly can’t understand. So, if you can’t accept this graciousness, the wonder of this gift, this baby…You will not speak until after your son is born. The angel takes away Zechariah’s voice…And Zechariah was not able to speak again until John was born.
Now this seemed to be quite an effective tool…it gave the angel the quiet to share the good news and it gave Zechariah time to think about what had just happened…He remained without a voice until his son was born. When John was born, Elizabeth & Zechariah brought their baby to the temple on the 8th day to be circumcised and named…Zechariah; still unable to speak was asked what name they were going to give this child. The angel had instructed both Elizabeth & Zechariah that their child was to be named John, so Elizabeth told the priest that was the name of the child and they argued with her. John was not a family name, so they questioned Elizabeth and asked Zechariah…Unable to speak, Zechariah wrote done the name John for the priests…It took him some time to soak in all that happened—the gift of a baby that he and Elizabeth had been given, the calling their son had been given by God, and the special circumstances around this baby…And he took it all in and accepted it. As he wrote down the name John on the tablet, his mouth was opened.
Our passage from this morning has the first words that Zechariah spoke when he was able to speak again. This really isn’t as much of a speech as a song. This was a song that Zechariah sang out of joy and belief. He had some time to think about what had been happening in Elizabeth & his life…And this was the song that he sang out of joy for what God had done in their life. Today, if people are so excited about something that they burst out in song, we think that there might be something a little wrong with them…But it was not uncommon in the temple for outbursts of song to happen. Its how people expressed themselves. Sometimes it’s easier to express in song what words can’t convey. And we have Zechariah’s song.
Even in the miraculous events around the gift of the baby and the birth of his son John, Zechariah recognized that there was something bigger going on. That his role in this was very small…As he sang, he prophesized about the coming Messiah. Now, Jesus was not yet born, but Mary was pregnant. And Zechariah sang of this coming Messiah. The horn of salvation from the house of David…The one who would save us from our enemies…The one who will execute mercy…The one who will remember the covenant of Abraham…The coming Messiah was a huge deal for God’s people.
The Jewish people were in exile once again as the Roman authorities had seized control over all of the world that they knew. They were waiting for the Messiah to come and overthrow this government and restore them to the power they thought they should have as God’s chosen people. What they had forgotten was that they had not lived as God’s chosen people…They were blessed to be a blessing…Instead they lived the blessing without sharing it with anyone else…When Zechariah sings about the covenant of Abraham—God had lived up to God’s end of the covenant, it was God’s people who fell short and didn’t live up to the covenant. So the Messiah that was coming was going to fix everything…
Zechariah’s song makes those promises again—that the Messiah was the one that they were waiting for…And as we knew Jesus came as the Messiah in ways that the world wasn’t expecting and in a lot of ways, the Messiah that the world didn’t want. So, Jesus is coming as the unexpected Messiah and John will be the prophet who will share the good news of Jesus’ coming.
When Zechariah dedicated his son as a prophet of the Most High, the one who will go before the face of the Lord, he knew the risks that this meant…Prophets were not well accepted and often met a terrible death…Not only was John being dedicated as a prophet, but as a prophet for the coming Messiah…Although most people wanted the Messiah, there were some who didn’t—mainly the people who were in political power and authority. And John will be the one to proclaim the coming of the Messiah.
Zechariah sang this song of joy knowing all the risks involved and he still sang to the glory of God. The decision that he was upset about at first, he knew had a bigger meaning than himself…It really wasn’t about him, but about God’s plan of salvation.
We have a lot to learn from Zechariah and his story seems so short…Just a few verses in the Gospel of Luke…We hear Zechariah’s selfish and angry disbelief and his move from that into understanding that there’s more than himself and what he wants.
Which is what the spirit of Christmas is about…Christmas is not about what we get and what we want, but Christmas is about that baby—the Messiah…It’s not about our desires, but it’s what God’s desires…And that spirit doesn’t last as long as Christmas, but that’s what the church is about. The church is not about our own desires, but about fulfilling the mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We are blessed to be a blessing! How are we being a blessing to the world? How are we living like Zechariah and putting away our own selfish desires in order to live God’s desires? Do we fight for what we want or for what God wants? Are we working harder at keeping ourselves comfortable or are we willing to be uncomfortable in order for someone to understand the love of God? That’s what Zechariah did—he put aside himself in order for God’s plan for salvation to be made known…It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t comfortable, but it’s what God calls…We are blessed to be a blessing.
This Advent & Christmas seasons are great times to reconnect with that idea…Christmas is not about what you want, but it’s about Jesus…Christmas is not your birthday, it’s Jesus’ birthday…Church is not about what we want, but what God wants…And what God wants is for all people to know about God’s love…For all people to know about God’s mighty acts of salvation…That God’s love is free and available for all people…That Jesus Christ was born for the world…That’s the message that we should be sharing as we make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
My friends the good news of the gospel is shared in Zechariah’s song…that God has raised up a horn of salvation from the house of David …The one who would save us from our enemies…The one who will execute mercy…The one who will remember the covenant of Abraham…The one who has blessed us to be a blessing for others.

Stay in Love with God

Stay in Love with God
I love coffee…The taste, the smell, the idea…I’m not gonna lie, I need to have at least 2 cups of coffee in the morning to be functional and the stronger the better…I like my coffee with cream and sugar…I prefer fair trade coffee because there’s nothing like knowing that a farmer earned a fair wage for their work rather than being exploited by corporations…I love coffee…I love the way that it warms me up when I’m feeling cold or if I’m feeling adventurous and try ice coffee, how it cools me down…I feel better after that first drink in the morning and I feel full of energy and ready to tackle the day…I crave coffee…Coffee fills me up! And yet…no matter how much I love coffee, there are times when I’m just done with it…I cut out the hard stuff by about 2:00 and am not a fan of decaf…Sometimes I’m just not thirsty and don’t need a drink…Sometimes I’ve just had too much and I’m done for the day…As much as I love coffee, I’m just kind of done with it…I’m sure you’ve got something like that for you…chocolate? Sports? Shopping? What is that thing that you just seem to crave? And yet no matter how much coffee I drink, it’s not always what I’m craving…I think it might be, but it’s just not satisfying like I want it to be…It seems like there’s something more…
For the past couple weeks we’ve been going through John Wesley’s 3 Simple Rules…The first week, we explored the first rule—Do No Harm, which isn’t as easy as we may think nor is it one that many people go out to intentionally break and yet it happens, right? So there’s grace for when we do fall short…But more than doing no harm, we explored the second rule—Do Good…which is the other side of do no harm—where we seek to do all the good we can in all the places we can to all the people we can as long as we ever can and not because we are trying to earn God’s love, but because we have already received God’s love…Which brings us to the third rule which is clearly not about coffee…But the third rule is to stay in love with God. So, what does that mean?
When married couples are having difficulties in their marriage, one of the pieces of advice is to think about what made them fall in love. To go to the time when they knew this was the person with whom they wanted to spend the rest of their life with—the person that they were madly in love with. So, when was the first time that you knew that you were in love with God? Now, it sounds like an awkward question because we usually don’t talk about God in a romantic way or in a way where God is my boyfriend or girlfriend…But, falling in love with God is something that we do when we decide to claim Jesus Christ as Lord…If you didn’t love God—would you really do something like that? Give your whole life over? No, we don’t talk about God with the romantic love, we talk about God in the “agape” love…Agape is the fullest kind of love…In the Greek language there are several different words for “love” each describing a different kind of love—erros which is passionate love; philios which is brotherly or friendship kind of love, and agape which is the fullest and Godly kind of love. The root for the word agape is also the root for the same word as holy in the Greek…So agape is kind of that holy love. So, when did you fall into agape with God? It doesn’t have to be a life changing moment, although that’s possible! It may have been a gradual happening—something that you didn’t even realize was happening, but now life will never be the same! When did you fall in love with God?
Jesus’ sermon on the mount is a challenging piece of Scripture because it challenges beliefs and actions…Jesus calls for a commitment to the whole of God—to fall in love with God with our whole beings…The last section doesn’t sway from that idea whatsoever…Jesus tells those listening that not everyone that says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of God…That’s not very comforting is it? Not everyone that calls on the name of God will enter the kingdom of God? What does that really mean? Jesus is insistent that our actions must match our belief…If we confess that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord over our whole lives and not just what we want Jesus to be Lord over…So you can’t say, Jesus I want you to be my Lord, but stay out of my business…And if we confess Jesus as Lord it’s all the time and not just when it’s convenient…Jesus I want you to be my Lord on Sundays and Tuesdays, but the rest of the time is off limits…Not everyone who claims to believe really believes…
Now that’s not to say that we should look at everyone who confesses Jesus with suspicion and think, “I wonder if they’re one of those Christians.” Jesus also said, take the log out of your own eye before you attempt to remove the speck in another’s…Don’t worry so much about what someone else is doing—what are you doing? Are you in love with God with your whole being? Because I have to tell you that it is not easy all the time…
There are so many things pulling our attention from God…Oh, I’ll just watch this one episode of ER and then I’ll pray…Oh, I’ll just miss worship this one week so that I can sleep in…Oh, I’ll just stay at work a little bit longer and then I’ll study the Bible…There is much that will pull our attention away from God. There is much that comes between that love that we have with God…Now some may be thinking…Well, you know what Melissa you have no idea—I do love God with my whole being…Which you may very well do…But let me ask a question—where does most of your money go? If you looked at the register in your checkbook—where does most of your money go? Is it to God? Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…
In a couple weeks we will begin the Advent countdown…The four weeks where we prepare for the birth of Jesus—Christmas. Our culture gives us subtle hints as to when it’s time to celebrate Christmas…Maybe you’ve heard the songs on the radio already, or have seen the decorations in the stores, or have started thinking about gifts lists…Christmas has taken on a whole new life in the middle of our culture…Over the past few years there have been arguments about whether to say “Happy holidays” or “Merry Christmas”…but instead of focusing what we say to one another, what if we focused on what Christmas is really about? Because Christmas isn’t really about what our culture tells us…It’s not about gifts or ribbons, or cookies…Christmas is about a Messiah that came to us because we couldn’t do it on our own…Christmas is about a Savior who chose to spend time with us so that we could understand the love and grace of God…Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus…Christmas is Jesus’ birthday! Christmas is not your birthday…you have a birthday where you receive gifts and celebrate…Christmas is about Jesus’ birth…Now some may be thinking, “I’m not going to let you make me feel guilty for wanting to buy gifts for my loved ones.” Well, I’m not trying to…But here’s the challenge I give to you…Whatever you spend on Christmas this year—bring that same amount to the church. So, if you spend $1,000 on Christmas, bring $1,000 to the church…If you spend $10,000 on Christmas, bring $10,000 to the church. Whatever is collected from this Christmas miracle offering will go to help hunger issues. Because 30,000 children die every day from hunger issues. Because most of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day…Because it takes just $360 to feed a child for a year…$40 to feed a family of 5 for a month…Can you imagine what kind of a gift it is to give someone help to meet their basic needs? That instead of focusing on what we get and what we need, we focused on what someone else may need to live…That we live simply so that others may simply live.
Stay in love with God…Any relationship takes work…It takes communication and action…If you talked to someone you loved once a week, what kind of relationship do you have? If you talked to someone you love only when things are going wrong, what kind of relationship do you have? If you tell someone you love to stay out of your business, what kind of relationship do you have? Why is it okay to say & do those things to God? How do we stay in love with God?
By focusing on God…By being intentional about making God first in every aspect of our lives…John Wesley said to it was by attending upon the ordinances of God….Worship, Communion, Prayer, Bible study, Christian fellowship and discussion…
Imagine what it would be like if instead of craving a cup of coffee in the morning, you craved spending time with God in prayer…Because the satisfaction that comes from that is more than any cup of coffee can give…Every morning, I start the with prayer and devotion. Upstairs in my library, before I even go downstairs to make my coffee, I’m in prayer and time with God…Sometimes it’s a long time before I can get settled enough to be fully with God and sometimes it’s very quick…And there are days when I’m running late or my alarm doesn’t go off that I don’t spend that time with God…And I know it because my whole day is off…I feel like the person Jesus talks about who built their house on sandy land instead of a strong foundation…That’s what it’s like when we don’t give our whole selves to God—when we still want to follow our own way or the way that our culture tells us…our lives are built on sand instead of a strong foundation…
Stay in love with God by attending to all the ordinances of God…God asks a lot from us…Just in Jesus’ sermon on the mount, there is a lot asked of us…Don’t murder, don’t be angry, don’t commit adultery, don’t look at anyone with lust, treat others as you would like to be treated, forgive your brothers and sisters, whatever you do to the least of these you do to me, where your treasure is there your heart will be also…And that’s just the beginning…God asks a lot from us—God asks for all of us! God wants us to love God with our whole being…And it’s not an impossible task…Yes, it is hard because so much pulls our attention elsewhere…But it’s not impossible to stay in love with God…If you find it challenging, turn to the person sitting next to you and promise to help them when life gets hard and they promise to you the same thing…Find some friends to build a covenant group…Find someone who will hold you accountable…It’s not impossible to stay in love with God…Partly because it’s deep within us to want to…God has placed a desire in us to be with God…Instead of filling that desire with other things, let’s fill it with God…By attending to the ordinances of God…By doing no harm…by doing God…and Staying in love with God.

Do Good

Do Good
This week we continue our series on John Wesley’s 3 simple rules. These rules were the basis that John Wesley required those in the Methodist societies to live by. As the members of the small groups gathered together they shared together how it was with their souls based around the general rules: Do no harm, Do Good, and Stay in Love with God. In their small groups, they were held accountable for their actions and responsible for deepening their faith together. It was John Wesley’s intention that through these Methodist societies, the Church of England would ultimately be revived. As with most revolutions, that proved to be impossible and the beginning of the Methodist Church was started. We didn’t become the United Methodist Church until 1968 when the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Bretheren Church joined together. In the past few years there has been a resurgence in connection with the Wesleyan way or the way that John Wesley taught and preached. One of those reconnections has been through the general rules. Ruben Job wrote a small book on these general rules in order to help understand these general rules and that has been the basis of the 3 Simple Rules.
Last week we considered the first rule: Do no harm and discovered that it may be more difficult than originally thought. But we continue to strive toward the goal of doing no harm and for the times when we fall short, God’s grace is there.
So on the other side of do no harm, would be to do good. Which just like do no harm seems to be quite simple! Many people would agree that the world would probably be a better place if more people helped one another and cared for one another as Jesus taught. So if do good is such an easy rule, why is the world not such a perfect place? Maybe because do good isn’t as easy either…
Whenever I hear the rule do good, I can hear my dad’s voice…It must have started when I was little, but I can remember all the way until I graduated high school the message that he left whenever he left. “Be good.” He always said…Now, that meant to follow all the rules and be respectful and help out…None of that was ever spelled out, but it was what he meant when he said, “Be good.” I wonder if that’s partly what John Wesley meant when he said, do good.
The full rule from Wesley is “do all the good you can, to all the people you can, in all the places that you can.” Now, I don’t know about you but I can name a lot of places to do good…And I can name a lot of places where good is not done…
It’s not enough to just do no harm…Because even if you succeeded in doing no harm perfectly, what would you be doing? You’d be focusing so much on that that you would forget anything else! So as we try not to do harm we also try to do good.
As Jesus continues his teaching on the sermon on the mount, he is talking to the crowd about spiritual disciplines—fasting, praying, and giving to the poor. In each case he gives them an instruction on how not to do the discipline and how to do the discipline….
”Whenever you give, do not sound trumpets so others will notice…Instead, don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.” Now, in the past few years many celebrities have been outspoken about the donations that they have made to charities…And for some it is a way to get more people to give, but for others it’s a way to draw attention to themselves…Bill & Melinda Gates—the world’s richest couple have also been the biggest philanthropists, and although some of their work is starting to get some attention, the Gates do not bring attention to the amount of money that they give, just to the work that’s being done. In May of this year at our General Conference the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations issued the challenge to double whatever was given to the Nothing But Nets campaign to buy nets for those who live in countries where malaria is rampant. I have not yet heard what the collection has been, but as the Northern Illinois Conference we have collected $22,983 during annual conference. Now some of you are probably thinking that you will not ever see that amount of money and so it’s pretty easy to think about not broadcasting how much you give…And although giving money is important because God commands it, it’s not the only way that we give…We give our time, our talents, our prayers, and our service as well…If the motivation of getting attention is your motive for doing good, are you really doing good or are you serving yourself? What does it mean to give without drawing attention to yourself? Well, it means to do good…
Jesus also talks about prayer….He talks about the hypocrites who pray loudly in order to be seen and get attention…Jesus says go into your closet and shut the door…What was happening was there were people who were in the temples and in the streets praying loudly and broadcasting all of their accomplishments and what they had done and focusing on themselves rather than on God. So when Jesus says go into your closet and shut the door he is reminding them to focus on God and their relationship with God rather than making themselves look good.
Jesus also talks about fasting—the discipline of giving something up, usually for 40 days. Most Christians understand this as a part of Lent, but fasting is not limited to the Lenten season. Fasting is something that can be done year round and in many different ways. Some people give up eating…some give up a particular item…What is important to remember in giving something up, is that we fill the time doing whatever it was that we gave up with spending time with God. So if your fast is from eating, the time that you would normally eat, you should spend that time in prayer and study with God. What was happening with the hypocrites as Jesus called them is that they were fasting for attention…They would go out into public looking pathetic…A way of saying, “I’m so faithful and holy--- look at me!” But Jesus says, to continue to fast and go out as though nothing had changed…Shower, dress up, put oil on your face and don’t look pathetic…Don’t draw attention to yourself because that defeats the purpose…
Jesus continues by saying not to store up treasures on earth—for where your treasure is there your heart will be also…Do good…If we are so focused on ourselves and what people think about us, are we doing good? Are we loving with sacrificial love like Jesus taught? Where is our treasure? Is it in our stuff? Is it in what other people think of us? Is it in God? As we love our neighbor as we love ourselves? Do good…
Doing good is important and there are many things that constitute doing good…But what is the motive behind it? Is it to get attention or is it to humbly serve? Do all the good you can in all the places you can to all the people you can.
It’s not enough to do no harm…If you hold your tongue from saying something bad about someone are you telling them something good instead? If you stop from hitting someone are building them up instead? If you stop gossiping are you instead sharing your faith? Are you doing all the good you can in the all the places you can to all the people you can? Even if we avoid doing no harm and do no good we have still been doing harm…Silence speaks volumes many times.
The Sudan has been called by the United Nations as the worst humanitarian crisis. Sudan is a country in Africa that is torn by war and genocide…Our government has called what is happening in Sudan a genocide…Children are being killed daily or forced to become soldiers…Women are being raped or forced to become slaves…There are conditions that we can’t even begin to imagine…We can say we won’t support the terrible regimes that are causing this harm and doing these things, but if we don’t follow that up with doing good our silence seems to agree with those who perpetrate the crimes against humanity…What does it mean to do good?
Maybe if more people focused on doing good the world would be a much better place…And it would be easy to look at the world and say, “well no one else is doing it so why should I?” or “There’s just too much to do and I’m only one person…” Maybe you’ve heard the starfish story? (Starfish story)…What difference are you making in even one person’s life? Are you doing all the good you can in all the places you can to all the people you can? It doesn’t have to be a grand event or something huge…It can be simple, but powerful…Like pushing someone’s cart back for them…or buying some extra food for the food pantry…or giving a smile to someone who’s had a hard day…giving someone a compliment rather than sharing gossip…Sharing your faith rather than worrying about what they’ll think about you…
There are countless ways to do all the good we can in all the places we can to all the people we can…And we don’t do good to earn favor with God…We do good because we’ve already gained favor with God…Jesus already took care of what we couldn’t…We are justified through Jesus because he did what we could not…Because of that justification we strive to do good…Not because we want God to love us more but because God has already loved us more than we can imagine…God doesn’t keep a tally list of how much good that we do and that means we get a bigger reward or it makes up for the times that we didn’t…We do good because it’s what God wants us to do…To love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourself…To do justice, to love mercy, and walk humbly with our God…Do do no harm, to do good, and stay in love with God…

2008 Election Guide

The General Board of Church & Society of the United Methodist Church focuses on the social issues and how they relate to our faith and beliefs as United Methodists. Every election they provide an election guide for voters to use to compare candidates platforms with the social principles of the United Methodist Church. If you are interested in learning more, please visit the website here.


Who would Jesus vote for in the upcoming election? Only the foolish would hazard a guess. But the New Testament itself is a picture of Jesus’ priorities amid all that clamored for His attention.Christ’s mission of justice and compassion was extended to all people. As United Methodists, we are called to transform the world. Part of that transformation is made through faithful advocacy, community involvement and holding our leaders accountable.

This guide is intended as a discernment tool for you, your church and your community to evaluate potential leaders and political agendas of the two major parties as they relate to the Social Principles and Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church. As you read through the guide, ask yourself: How do these party platforms align with Church priorities for addressing human need and the integrity of God’s creation? What action might that call us to? What confession must we make about our own selfish priorities?

The United Methodist Church does not advocate a two-party system and we encourage you to seek out details on the variety of political parties and candidates. We have provided highlights based on party platform information available at the time.

Do No Harm

Do No Harm
John Wesley was an Anglican priest in England, who took a hard look at the denomination that he faithfully served and said, “Something’s wrong…something’s missing.” He was so distraught over the lack of commitment & passion & discipline that he saw among Christians and members of the Anglican church that he said that something had to be done. He was set to revive the Anglican Church…So; he started what he called “holiness clubs.” These holiness clubs were covenant groups—they were meant for the members to deepen their faith commitment, be held accountable, and ultimately revive the church. The holiness clubs got a reputation around England…the people in them seemed to follow such rigid rules and do things just so…they had such a method about them, so the holiness clubs earned the nickname, “Methodists”…It was meant to be a derogatory term that referred to the methodical way that the holiness club members went about everything….Their rigid rules, their practice of faith, their daily prayer…They had a method for everything! Now, you might think… Why would anyone want to be a part of something that was seen so negatively and so rigid? It must have been impossible to follow all of the rules and to be nearly perfect for these clubs! Well, the truth is that it wasn’t easy…but practicing faith isn’t something that is easy—it takes dedication, discipline, believe, trust…And the rigid rules? Well, they really boil down to 3…What are being called now as the 3 simple rules. Do No Harm, Do Good, Stay in love with God. Over the next 3 weeks, we’ll be diving into these 3 simple rules and seeing how they continue to affect our lives and how they deepen our practice of faith. As we do that, we’ll also be thinking through the saying, “Live simply so that others may simply live.” I’m convinced that these 3 simple rules and this phrase go hand in hand with one another although they were spoken by different people years apart…What does it mean to live simply so that others may simply live? What does it mean to do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God? Over the next weeks, we’ll wrestle with those things together. At times the journey may be uncomfortable as we examine our lives together…That’s okay—they aren’t easy questions, but they are important questions. This morning we begin with the first rule…Do no harm.
Now, I have to admit that when I started looking at these General Rules a few years ago, I thought that Wesley made things too easy…I couldn’t believe that people thought these were strict or hard! It made the picture I had of John Wesley being an authoritarian kind of figure seem like a marshmallow…These rules weren’t difficult! I mean the first one sets it up…First, do no harm. That just plain makes sense doesn’t it? Who willingly goes out to harm other people? I mean seriously! So, I first thought, “Sweet! Check and mate! I got that one down cold!” Then, in devotional reading…I turned to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount…Which is probably the best sermon I have ever come across…and the most uncomfortable sermon I have ever come across…
Now in Jesus’ sermon, he announces that he has not come to abolish the law like some have accused him of, but he is there to fulfill the law…Nothing of the law of Moses goes away…In our passage from this morning, Jesus starts to talk about those laws…Now he starts with some of the laws that most people don’t have a hard time keeping…Of course there are exceptions…But if I took a poll this morning of how many people had committed murder or adultery, probably not a lot of hands would go up…It just makes sense—we know that those are 2 things that are wrong and we just don’t do them…So Jesus starts out with the first being, “You’ve heard it said do not murder.” And just like the first rule, “Do no harm.” I thought—“Sweet! No issue there!” But then Jesus goes further… “But I say to you…if you are angry with someone…if you insult someone…if you have a grudge against someone…you will be liable to the same judgment as murderers.” Ouch…It’s one of those times when I just say, “Oh Jesus…you were doing so good! Everything was so easy…and then!” But Jesus isn’t finished because he goes on to say, “You’ve heard it said that you shall not commit adultery.” Which again, sounds really easy right…Until Jesus keeps going… “But I tell you if you even look at someone with lust, you’ve already committed it.” Oh…Following the rules was supposed to be easy, isn’t it? Jesus didn’t abolish any law…he made it harder...Do no harm takes on a whole new meaning in light of Jesus’ teaching here…
What Jesus does is take 2 circumstances that a majority of people haven’t done before…a majority of people haven’t committed murder or adultery…So, most people are probably feeling pretty good about themselves that they are following the law and doing what they’re supposed to be doing…And then Jesus makes that twist that convicts everyone…Because who hasn’t been angry with someone? Or who hasn’t looked at someone attractive and thought, “Wow…” Jesus takes 2 laws that most people haven’t broken and puts them in context of things that pretty much everybody has done…First….Do no harm…
Maybe you’re starting to feel hopeless…Like how can you do anything right? Well, that’s kind of Jesus’ point…No one can do everything perfectly—everyone is going to sin and fall short as Paul writes…You’re going to be angry, you’re going to insult someone, you’re going to look at people…So, do you give up then and there and say, “Gosh it’s impossible so why even try?” Or do you say, “Only by the grace of God can this be possible.”
Do no harm…It seems so simple…It seems so easy…And yet…it’s really not…Do no harm…Not many people willingly go out and say that they’re going to inflict pain on another person…Not many people think that it’s a good feeling to hurt another’s feelings…Not many people sit around and think “how can I be destructive today?” But how many people do it?
When was the last time you physically hit someone? Do no harm…When was the last time you gossiped? Do no harm…When was the last time you called someone else a bad name? Do no harm… When was the last time that you thought something negative about another person? Do no harm…
Last weekend, Linda Floyd & Karen Lanehart & I and about 1,000 other people were at Ginghamsburg UMC in Tipp City, Ohio for a conference. This conference was full of dynamic speakers and amazing ideas and challenging thoughts…One of which was “Live simply so others may simply live.” Now, when it was first said, I thought “Yes! Absolutely!” Now in the economy that we are experiencing right now, this just makes a whole lot of practical sense. Not many people are spending money on the extra things…Out of necessity people are living more simply, right? Well, that’s true…But what does it really mean to live simply so that others may simply live? The next few weeks, I have encouraged you to wear your blue jeans to worship. I was talking with a friend of mine about that and he said to me… “Oh, Melissa—I can’t believe that you’re encouraging people to take worship so un-seriously…Don’t you know that you have to come to God in your best? That’s why it’s called your Sunday best, you know?” and I thought about it for a few minutes and I thought…You know you’re right—God shouldn’t get our second best…But what does that mean? As he continued his argument, I started to think about the clothes that I was wearing…Now, I don’t shop for designer labels or for the most expensive clothes…But when I calculated the cost of what it took me to go out of the house that day—clothes, make-up, jewelry, showering, shoes…I calculated that it took about $140 for me to walk out the door…Think about what you’re wearing this morning…How much did it cost you to walk out the door to come to worship this morning? If it takes that amount for you to walk out the door to come to worship on Sunday morning, what does that mean for a single mother of three who is working 3 jobs just so she can feed her children? Does she have the luxury of spending $140 just to worship God? Or the man who can barely afford his prescriptions because Medicare won’t pay for everything and he’s lost his 401K…Does he have the luxury of spending $140 just to worship God? What does it mean to do no harm? What does it mean to live simply so that others may simply live?!? When I got dressed for worship this morning, I had 15 pairs of shoes to choose from…10 pairs of jeans…I had hot water to take a shower…I had 2 towels to choose from…If you have more than one pair of shoes or more than one set of clothing to choose from…We are automatically in the top 15% of the richest people in the world…The United Methodist Committee on Relief has a program by which they feed a family of five for $40 for a month…That $140 that it took me to walk out of the house would have fed 3 ½ families for a month…How many families would you have fed this morning? Do no harm…30,000 children die every day from hunger related situations…every 5-7 seconds a child dies from hunger…What does it mean to do no harm? What does it mean to live simply so that others may simply live?
One of my favorite movies is Hotel Rwanda…It’s the story of Paul Russebagina who was a hotel manager in the 90’s when the genocide was happening in Rwanda, Africa. As the murderous rampage was happening on the streets, Paul Russebagina managed to keep over 1,000 people alive during this terrible time. As the genocide is happening in the streets, a reporter from the United States catches a murder on film…As he and his editor are editing the clip to send back for the news in the States, Paul walks in on them…They immediately turn off the TV to talk with Paul…Later that evening the cameraman finds Paul and apologizes for what he just saw…Paul tells him not to apologize because surely people will see what is happening in Rwanda and they can’t do anything but help. The cameraman looks down for a moment and says, “I think people will see that and think, that’s horrible and then go back to eating their dinner.” Do no harm…
Not as easy as it once sounds…And just like hearing Jesus tell the law, we can think… “Gosh, why should I even try?” Or we can think, “Only by the grace of God is this possible!” Because it’s not easy…but practicing our faith was never meant to be easy…We don’t just say yes to Jesus and that’s all…When we say yes to Jesus and accept Jesus as our Lord, we make him the Lord over all of our life and not just the parts we want to give him…Accepting Jesus as Lord means that we try to do no harm…And for those times when we fail and we fall short…well, there is grace and there is forgiveness…And in that forgiveness is a promise that we will try to never do it again…Jesus never said that it would be easy to follow him…He said over and over that it was a difficult path—but it is worth it…Even the disciples from time to time fell short…But Jesus didn’t kick them out or tell them that they should find him when they become perfect and do everything like he said...He told them to keep trying and to keep working toward the goal…
John Wesley didn’t establish these rules because he wanted to show how good he was or to find the unfaithful people to kick them out of the church…Although simple, they’re hard…Which means that we have to rely that much more on God…That we have to depend that much more on God’s grace…That as we work and try hard to do no harm, that God will still be with us when we fall short…Which doesn’t give us an easy out to say that God will forgive us anyway…but it gives us comfort in knowing that God will still be with us even when we break God’s heart…But that we are striving for perfection…just as God is perfect…And that we are being perfected by God in love…And because of God’s love and grace, we will follow what God has taught us…First, do no harm.

3 Simple Rules

3 Simple Rules
Based on the best-selling book, Three Simple Rules, now hear the author, Rueben Job, teaching and explaining his ideas on this thought-provoking book.

Each class will meet at 2:00 pm on the dates listed below at Sheridan United Methodist Church.


November 2—Do No Harm
November 9—Do Good
November 16—Stay in Love with God

Classes will also meet at 10:00 am on the dates listed below at Norway United Methodist Church.

November 5—Do No Harm
November 12—Do Good
November 19—Stay in Love with God

You can attend one or all of the sessions that you are interested in. Please let Pastor Melissa know if you will need child care.

Mission:Possible

Mission: Possible
What is the mission of the church? (wait for responses). The Church is called to make and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The cyclical mission of the church is to proclaim the Gospel, invite and lead people to make a commitment of faith, continually nurture believers in faith, and prepare and send believers out into the world. These are as a response to the grace of God given to all and are not done in order to ensure salvation, but because of salvation. This task is done in a variety of different of ways.
The Church is the body of Christ in the world. As such, the mission of the Church is to bring Jesus and his ministry of reconciliation to the world. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:19, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” This means that the Church is called to reconcile others to God by making disciples of Jesus Christ and also provide support for those who are oppressed and marginalized by the world.
While mission is a word that many people in the Church toss around as something that the youth do in the summer, it is not the sole example of “mission.” I know that some of my most formative spiritual experiences happened while I was working on mission trips. I have worked in some poverty-stricken areas rebuilding homes and repairing landscapes and I have worked in affluent areas spreading the Gospel through various forms of evangelism. Both are legitimate forms of mission work and are complements to making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Mission work is very important for that reason: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. If the Church stops working in mission, it will begin to deny the roots of its formation and the charge Jesus Christ gave in His ministry. We are to take care of the poor, the orphaned, and widows, and to share the Gospel—the Good News! Methodism has roots in mission in order to bring people the Gospel. Because of the itinerant system—which is the system by which as United Methodists we still participate in…As a United Methodist clergyperson, I am called to follow the appointment of the Bishop which means that as United Methodists, we move to different churches after a certain period of time… But, that’s not a new concept and actually goes back in our history to the circuit rider system of the early Methodist church…Circuit riders rode on horseback throughout an area to share the Gospel to make and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world….Because of their mobile habits-- the preachers were able to go into areas most people either forgot or to which others were not sure how to spread the Gospel. The interconnectedness of the United Methodist Church is founded in a belief in mission and connectionalism. The two rely on each other for advocacy, support, and other resources.
You may have heard about various areas of mission in the United Methodist Church by way of agencies or special projects…United Methodist Committee on Relief or UMCOR is one that many people may be familiar with…UMCOR provides relief and aid in more places than most people are aware of…As a matter of fact, UMCOR is allowed in places where Christian churches are not…UMCOR was one of the fastest and most effiecient responders to the relief efforts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita…Their efforts were recognized as so effiecient and effective that the United States Government gave UMCOR $66 billion to continue their efforts…That is just one of the ways that we as United Methodists are in mission to the world. Now, the way the UMCOR and the other agencies and mission communities of the United Methodist Church function and operate is through our support…When we pay our apportionments it provides the funds for these agencies to work throughout our world…That means that we are helping to support the message of the Gospel go throughout the whole world…We are supporting the mission of the church to make and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!
One part of the Church’s mission that is important to the United Methodist Church is the social justice component. Social justice is something that is deep in the core of United Methodism and continues to be important. For example, at the 2004 General Conference, it was approved that the United Methodist Church boycott Taco Bell. The boycott was on behalf of migrant workers who are being treated unfairly and unjustly by the larger corporations. The migrant workers who are picking tomatoes for Taco Bell are not receiving proper compensation or proper working conditions; therefore, the United Methodist Church officially decided to perform this boycott. And at the 2007 Northern Illinois Annual Conference, we also voted to boycott all fast food restaurants for the same reason. The boycott has ended because all fast food chains voted to give a 1 cent increase to their workers--which was a significant victory for justice. While this particular situation a current event, it has not been unusual for the United Methodist Church to take a stand against situations that are hindering the journey to perfection. These situations include but are not limited to, gambling, prohibition, slavery, and war. Did you know all of that was done through the United Methodist Church?
Over the course of this month, you’ll hear different ways of being in mission to the world…Next week, you’ll hear the story of our cluster mission trip to Cincinnati…You’ll hear from Mary Thomas about her mission trip to Uganda Africa…and You’ll also hear the story of Rob Borchenius’ work to collect some stories & songs of Norway…and in that will also be the Mission Street Fair next week! All ways the message of the Gospel is shared to…Make and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
That is our mission as the church…Our mission is not to collect stuff…Our mission is not to maintain…Our mission is not to wait…Our mission is to act now…Our mission is to make and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world…It’s not an impossible mission…Because it’s something that is quite possible!
The message of the Gospel—the good news is a message that is transformational…Jesus made the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear…Do you not think that through making and creating disciples of Jesus Christ the world will be transformed??? Jesus’ message is revolutionary! Love the whole world?!? Love your neighbor as you love yourself?!? Blessed are the poor?!? Blessed are you when you are persecuted!?! Jesus’ message is revolutionary and one that contains hope beyond expectations…It’s hope that means we have put our faith in something bigger than ourselves…In One who does not fail…In One who loved the whole world that who so ever believes in Him will not die, but have eternal life…What an amazing hope! What an Amazing God…What Amazing Grace!?! How can you not want to share that Good News with anyone and everyone? It is precisely that message that causes us to want to make and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world…Not impossible, but surely possible through that grace and love of God…
We come to the table this morning gathered as a united body of Christians…We all receive the same grace from God and we all have the same mission…Let us be filled this morning with the food of God and the grace of God to…Make and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!

Whose Authority?

Whose Authority?
We do a lot of things with authority…One can speak with authority…One can behave with authority…Some respect authority…Some reject authority…We all have different ways of stating our own authority in different situations…Ways of letting others know that we have the situation under control and we are in charge here. And of course there’s nothing quite like someone questioning your authority…Children question authority quite a bit! Maybe you can remember the last time a child said to you, “You’re not the boss of me!” and to be honest there are times when we just never grow out of that! Think about it…When was the last time you let someone know that they weren’t the boss of you? Was it when you missed curfew? Was it when you were speeding on 71? Did you talk about someone behind their back? Oh even as teens and adults, we have a lot of ways that we still say to people, “You’re not the boss of me!” When was the last time you said it?
In our passage from Exodus, we are continuing to follow the Israelites through the wilderness as they seek the Promised Land—the land that God promised them flowing with milk and honey…They had come from being slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt….After a series of plagues and a daring escape crossing the Red Sea, the Israelites were free from the oppression that they had been under for so long…Knowing that they were free and headed toward the promised land, you would think that they would be rejoicing and happy and full of life and energy…But as we heard last week from part of their story—they complained about food and even said that they wish that they had never left Egypt….Because certainly being oppressed but full was better than being free and hungry! Well, God met their needs for food with manna & quails and they were satisfied…So you would think that after that amazing miracle and knowing that God would meet any need, they would be rejoicing and on their way to the Promised Land! But in our passage for today…As the Israelite camp out, they camp in a place that has no water…Which, let’s face it—if you were camping and spending the night in a place that had no water and you’d been walking all day in the hot sun, wouldn’t you be a little cranky too? But you’d think that they’d remember what God had promised and had given them…Instead of waiting on God or trusting that God would take care of them—they start to complain again…They say to Moses—“Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us, our children and our livestock with thirst?” Because certainly it is better to be slaves, but have water to drink, instead of what they were…In asking Moses this question—or rather making this statement…they were questioning Moses’ authority…and even more than Moses’ authority—they were questioning God’s authority…In their statement that Moses brought them out of Egypt just to die, they may as well have said, “You’re an idiot for not thinking about everything that we might need! How can you possibly be the boss of me?”
Moses had to be getting tired of these Israelites…I mean he didn’t want to lead them in the first place—God had to do a lot of convincing to get him to lead God’s people out of Egypt…He’d already asked God for food and now the Israelites were once again questioning his authority—which they had seen with their own eyes what Moses could do with the power of God…And also more importantly that Moses’ authority—they were questioning God’s authority…The same God that Moses knew that he could do nothing else through was being questioned by the Israelites…So Moses cries out to God…”What do I do with these people?” A cry that I would bet many of us has cried out a few times in our lives! “What do I do with these people? They are ready to stone me!” Moses recognizes God’s authority and power over his life and Moses has seen over and over again what God can do—the plagues, crossing the Red Sea, providing manna & quail…He knows that God will provide what they need.
So God tells Moses to strike a stone with his staff and water would come out…A pretty amazing and miraculous feat—something that only God can do! So Moses does what God said and does it in full view of the elders of Israel…And he strikes the stone and water comes out…He did this in full view of the elders of Israel so that they knew where this water came from…it came because of the authority that God had given him…
Authority was something that Jesus had to wrestle with often…Jesus was doing such radical things that many people who were in the positions of authority in the temple were afraid of what he was doing and how he was challenging the status quo…So they questioned his authority often…Much like the direct question that Jesus got from the chief priests and elders of the Temple…”By what authority are you doing these things and who gave you that authority?” Which is a really challenging question—If Jesus says the authority comes from God, well he’s being blasphemous because certainly God only grants authority to the priests! And if he says from the people around him…well, that is fleeting because some people will believe and others will not….Now Jesus is one smart fellow…He doesn’t give them the answer, but instead asks them a question…He tells them that he’ll tell them where his authority comes from if they tell him if John’s baptism was from heavenly origin or human origin…Well, they’re just as stuck as Jesus! If they say heavenly then they have to admit why they don’t believe what John says and preaches…If they say human—the people in the crowd will revolt because they believe differently! So how do they answer the question? “I don’t know” and Jesus tells them that he won’t reveal where his authority comes either.
The Gospel of Matthew does a lot of comparison with Jesus…He is compared with Moses all throughout the Gospel of Matthew…This is mostly because Matthew’s Gospel was written to a largely Jewish audience and for them to begin to understand the scope of Jesus and his authority, they had to do it through a lens that they already know…Moses was a hero to the Israelites—the Jewish people. Although they questioned his authority often, he proved that he did many things through God and eventually, after a lot of wandering, they arrived at the Promised Land...All of God’s promises had been fulfilled. Moses was a hero to them and someone that they knew had authority, had been gifted by God, and did great things…The closest person that Jesus could be compared to was Moses…Now, Jesus had a whole different authority that Moses because Moses was just a human being…Jesus is God made flesh—both human and Divine…So, Jesus has the authority…For the Jewish people to begin to comprehend who Jesus was, they started from a place that they understood and from a person that they granted authority to!
Jesus’ question to the priests is an interesting one…He asks them about baptism…What happens in the waters of our baptism? Is it of heavenly origin or a human origin? As we pray the Thanksgiving over the water, the pastor prays for the Holy Spirit to come upon the water…So, it’s a heavenly origin…And through the waters of our baptism we are made new creations…Whether you were baptized as an infant or as an adult…You were changed through the waters of your baptism…It was in those waters that you were claimed as God’s own and cleansed and called into ministry. Yes, you heard me right…Through the waters of your baptism you were called into ministry…The ministry of all Christians…Now there are some who are called into ordained ministry or to be pastors…And through that calling a different skill set is needed and learned…I began my process of ordination 10 years ago and have since received my undergraduate and graduate degrees and have undergone several interviews with the Board of Ordained Ministry and am currently a commissioned and provisional member for 2 years before I will go up for more interviews for ordination. As Bishop Will Willemon has said, “By the time we have one pastor; we could have made 2 brain surgeons.” Being called into ordained ministry is not what everyone is called into…But every Christian is called into ministry. The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. It doesn’t say that only pastors can do that…Nowhere does it say that only pastors are supposed to talk about their faith or faith in Jesus…Nowhere does it say that only pastors should pray…Nowhere does it say that pastors are the only ones responsible for ministry…Now as United Methodists our Book of Discipline is very clear on what a pastor or clergyperson can and should do…But it is also just as clear about what all Christians should do…All Christians are called into ministry to make and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
That’s the authority that you have been granted by God—you have been given authority to share what God has done in your life…You have been given authority to share the Gospel with the whole world! You have been given authority to claim Jesus as your Messiah, your Savior! That’s the authority that you have been given through Jesus Christ.
Too often in churches we get caught up with who’s in charge…We play more games of “You’re not the boss of me” than we do accepting the real authority that God gives us…And every time we play those games of “You’re not the boss of me” we call into question God’s authority…Because certainly God would not have called that particular person into that form of ministry…God calls who God calls…We shouldn’t be like the Israelites and need them to strike a stone and water to come out…God has the ultimate authority…we should trust that God knows what God is doing…Because God is the boss of us…When we claim Jesus as Lord, we claim that Jesus is Lord over all aspects of our life, not just the ones we want him to be! Jesus is Lord and not because we claim but because God has claimed it…That’s who has the authority…

On a Corner in Memphis

Todd Agnew

Saturday on Beale St. with the drunk and the searching
I hear an old man playing guitar
I can't make out what he's saying
But I can tell you that he's suffered
And that he means every word from the bottom
Of what's left of his heart tonight
A few hours later, I slip into church
Singing songs about saving grace
One guy's nodding off and another hates to be here
And we all mouth the words to save face
It's 11:15 on Sunday morning
And I wish I was
On a corner in Memphis listening to the old man
Singing out his sorrows and laying down his pride
He's telling me his story or at least his side
With no need to pretend and nowhere to hide
'Cause we are all broken here
We are all ashamed
I couldn't fool you if I wanted to
Our stories are too much the same
And what about this Jesus?
They say He drank with the poor and the blind and the lame
Do you think He'd like the songs that we sing?
Or would He feel the same as I do?
What if Sunday School was on Saturday night?
What if their heart-breaking cries of pain
Are the first hymns of tomorrow's saints?
On a corner in Memphis, we're singing with the old man
Crying for his sorrows and laying down our pride
He's telling us our story, or at least his side
With no need to pretend and nowhere to hide
On a corner in Memphis
We're singing out our sorrows
He's telling us his story
With no need to pretend and nowhere to hide
On a corner in Memphis

Forgiveness & Forgiven-ness

Forgiveness & Forgiven-ness
Adam Hamilton recently used these statistics in a sermon at Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City….In a survey done of married couples and couples whose marriages didn’t last that there were 3 words spoken twice as often with the married couples than the ones who didn’t last…Think about what those 3 words might be, but here’s another hint…In a study done by the University of Michigan Health Care system, they instructed their doctors to say these same 3 words in certain situations and what they found was the letters of intent to sue for malpractice declined 50% and the legal fees declined from 3 million dollars to 1 million dollars…Can you think of what those 3 words are? (Wait) I am sorry…Those are the 3 words that were said twice as often with married couples and also that caused letters of intent to sue for malpractice to decline 50%...
I am sorry…Now for sometimes and some situations, those words are easy to say…Sometimes we say them without really thinking about it…Like the last time that you had your foot stepped on, did you say that you were sorry to the person who stepped on your foot? But then there are those times when saying “I’m sorry” just isn’t that easy…
Peter approaches Jesus and asks him how often he should forgive if someone does something against him…Peter comes up with the number 7…not completely arbitrarily…He was actually being very generous. It was in the Jewish laws that one needed to forgive another 3 times…So, Peter more than doubled that and asked if 7 times was enough to forgive someone…Because certainly if 3 times was good, then 7 must be even better! And Jesus comes back with saying, that seven isn’t enough, but forgiveness should be offered 70 times 7 times…Now that’s not an exact equation from Jesus that we forgive someone 490 times, but it’s such a large number that we don’t even keep track of how many times we forgive…Can you imagine how life would be if we only had a limited number of times we could forgive? And even though it seems absurd to have such a limited number of times to forgive, aren’t there times when we refuse forgiveness?
Now there are all kinds of justifications that we can give as to why we don’t forgive… “But you just don’t understand, what they did was terrible!” “Well, I only won’t forgive them because they won’t say that they’re wrong.” Or you can put your own reason in there…We have justifications as to why we can’t or don’t forgive someone…
Now, I want to acknowledge that there are situations for some that are incredibly difficult to forgive—there are times and circumstances that I can’t even begin to imagine how one would forgive… Forgiveness doesn’t always mean saying that what happened was okay because there are certainly some situations and circumstances that it is not about saying that what happened was okay. If you have been abused, raped, molested, or physically hurt—those things are not okay and it is not acceptable to say that what someone did was okay…If those are situations that you are dealing with right now, know that it is not okay for someone to tell you that you just need to forgive and all will be okay.
Even if we ask for forgiveness or give forgiveness, there are still consequences for our actions. Like if you get into a car accident with someone else’s car, they may forgive what happened, but won’t let you borrow their car again…Or if you betrayed someone’s confidences by telling a secret, they may forgive you, but won’t trust you with anything personal again. If you have been physically harmed by someone, you may forgive them but can’t ever be in the same room with them again. Our actions do have consequences…
Last week, our passage from Matthew talked about reconciliation…Forgiveness is a step into reconciliation. It takes acknowledging that what happened was wrong and that someone feels badly about it…I admit that I did something wrong and ask for forgiveness…a step in the reconciliation process…
In asking for forgiveness, we should always admit what we did that was wrong…Without any excuses—none of the, “I’m sorry, but…” Admitting what we did that was wrong or hurtful…and promising to try and not be hurtful again…then, ask what we can do to help the reconciliation process…How can we make up for what we did…
When we grant forgiveness, we acknowledge that hurt that has been done to us and as we grant forgiveness, we promise not to hold it against the offender…So, if an argument happens two years after you’ve granted forgiveness, you can’t bring it back up…
Sometimes forgiveness is hard…it almost seems impossible at times…And yet, we know it means to be forgiven ourselves…Can we pass that forgiveness on to others or are we like the debt collector that Jesus talks about whose debts were forgiven, but turned around and treated another harshly…Do we forgive trespasses as our trespasses have been forgiven? We pray that every week…Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…Do you really want to be forgiven the way that you have forgiven?
There are stories of forgiveness that seem so extraordinary…Like stories of families whose children were murdered and they forgive the murder…Or the stories from the Amish community who cared for the gunman’s family after their children were brutally murdered…Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…
Steven Curtis Chapman is an award winning Christian singer. He and his wife Mary Beth have three biological children, Emily, Caleb, and Will Franklin and have adopted three girls from China—Shohannah Hope, Stevey Joy, and Maria Sue. On May 21, seventeen year old Will Franklin was driving his SUV in the driveway when Maria Sue ran to greet him. He didn’t see Maria and hit her with his car…As the Chapman family reacted to what happened, and called 911 and held on to their 5 year old daughter as she struggled to live…As the ambulance took Maria Sue to the hospital, Will in anguish tried to run from what happened when his older brother Caleb tackled him and held him to the ground and just held him…As Steven Curtis Chapman followed the ambulance to the hospital, he made the driver stop as he shouted out the window… “Will Franklin! Your dad loves you! Will Franklin! Your dad loves you!” Maria Sue died from this tragic accident…As the family continues to grieve the loss of the youngest child and come to grips with what happened…Will Franklin struggles to forgive himself. At Maria’s funeral, Caleb share that God healed Maria in ways that the family didn’t really like, but Caleb knew that God was going to heal Will in ways that everyone would really like…Mary Beth & Steven Curtis Chapman said in an interview that not once did they ever blame Will or do they hold what happened against him…They called it a tragic accident…Will has talked about his journey to find peace in what has happened and it is a journey that will last for a long time.
Sometimes it’s not someone else that we need to forgive, but it’s ourselves…We are our own worst critic at times…We are harder on ourselves than others are…Sometimes it may be deserved and other times, it’s more than we really deserve…As Jesus shared what he considered to be the greatest commandments—Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself…If you don’t love yourself enough to forgive yourself—how are you going to be able to love someone else enough to forgive them?
Why is forgiveness so hard? Why is it something that we deny to others or deny to ourselves? Why does it make the stories like the Chapman family seem so extraordinary? There are really lots of reasons why…Sometimes the circumstances are just so extraordinary…Sometimes the people are extraordinary…Most times it’s because the grace of God flows freely…Forgiveness is given freely to us…It only seems right that it should flow freely from us…
There may be something or someone that you are thinking about right now that you need to forgive…Maybe you’re not ready to admit what you have done wrong or what you’d like to do to make amends…Maybe you’re not quite ready to repent…You can say that…But studies have shown that people who forgive more often are usually healthier…less heart problems, less stress…The longer that you hold on to that forgiveness, the more it eats you up inside…Forgiveness is as much for you to let go as it is for the other person to be forgiven…
Or maybe you’re thinking about someone that you need to ask for forgiveness…Someone that you have hurt in some way…And you might be thinking that too much time has passed or you don’t know how to get in touch with that person…Those are really good excuses…About a year ago I went to lunch with a friend and as we caught up on life, I shared with her that I thought that I may have hurt her in a particular situation and they only reason that I thought that I may have caused her that pain was because I had felt it myself…As we recounted the situation that had happened almost five years earlier, I apologized for any hurt that I may have caused her. She said that there was none, but she appreciated the apology…I could have not said anything and I could have not offered apology…But I can’t tell you how much better I felt to have known how she felt and that we could be honest…An apology can come at anytime…
So, how many times should one forgive? 3 times? 7 times? 490? How many times have you been forgiven? 3 times? 7 times? 490? As you have confessed your sins to God, God hears your prayers and in the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven…Thanks be to God…You have been forgiven freely…Freely give…

Reconciliation at the Table

Reconciliation at the Table
Okay, by a show of hands—how many have had a disagreement with someone in your life? (hands)…That’s kind of what I thought—most people in the world have had a disagreement of some kind with someone before…It’s bound to happen that personalities will clash, or miscommunication will happen, expectations won’t be spoken or met…As human beings we have a problem at times getting along with people…Now as you think about a person that you have had a disagreement with….For some it might be the most vivid person and that disagreement may have been awhile ago and for some it might be the most recent person…Now that you have that person in your mind, how did you handle your disagreement and have you reconciled with that person?
For the past month, we’ve been thinking about our legacies and what it is that we want people to remember about our lives as individuals and our legacy as the church…We’ve talked about legacies not being about our death, but the way that we live our life because our legacy is only our legacy if that’s truly how we lived…We have thought about the importance of deciding what’s important—that people and relationships are more important that stuff…Humility is an admirable trait…The importance of being in community and that as human beings we are addicted to being in community and meant to be in relationship with others…Then last week, we thought about what it’s like to be a Tigger—a positive or optimistic person or to be an Eeyore—a negative or pessimistic person…Now this week’s idea didn’t come directly from Randy Pausch’s book, The Last Lecture, but it may as well have…The lesson that Jesus teaches us in the Gospel of Matthew is one that is important and one that really does help us to think about our legacy…It helps because it’s important to think about how we relate to other people, but it’s important because reconciliation is also helpful for our own personal well being.
Reconciliation is something that is important, but something that we don’t always do…Sometimes it’s easier to stay angry at someone rather than admit where we have been wrong or where we have been hurt…But what is reconciliation? Is it just letting go of whatever it is that bothers us or forgetting a disagreement with a person? That’s not really what Jesus says in the passage from Matthew…
As Jesus is talking to the disciples, he says, “If one member of the church sins against you go to that person first to point out what happened.” Jesus very clearly doesn’t say go and tell everyone else but that person…or spread nasty rumors about that person around town…Jesus says to go to that person directly. Now, that’s just good solid advice from Jesus…I mean the best way to clear up a disagreement or miscommunication with someone really is to go directly to that person to make sure that everyone knows what exactly is being talked about and what exactly happened…It’s really just logical advice…Most people would agree that the best way to solve the problem is to go directly to the source…And yet although that is the best solution and the most logical advice, that seems to the be the least likely to happen…It’s so much easier to tell everybody else rather than tell that one person…For some it’s because they hate conflict and avoid it all costs…Then there are the people who love conflict and intentionally cause fights…Do you know which one you are? I’ve found that those who are in favor of conflict don’t usually recognize it themselves…If you think about the interactions that you have had in your life around reconciliation, how have those interactions turned out? Jesus doesn’t just give the one piece of advice and then says, well that’s the way to handle these kinds of things…Jesus continues giving some scenarios if reconciliation doesn’t happen yet…
Then Jesus says that if that doesn’t help things and you aren’t heard, then take one or two people with you to be witnesses. Now the witnesses that come with you are people that are able to help you sort through what just said…Sometimes in the middle of our pain and hurt and anger it’s hard to hear someone else just as much as it’s hard to be communicate ourselves…Having those two or three other people might help to allow communication to happen and to happen better…
Then, finally Jesus says if neither of those two things help to build reconciliation, our next option is to tell the church…So, now comes the time where you air your hurt and disagreement…But not in a way that you just tell random people everywhere…There are specific ways to handle that communication so that both parties involved are given dignity and an equal opportunity to both be heard and to communicate themselves…Kind of like how our justice system is supposed to operate—innocent until proven guilty…If the community of believers already has their mind made up because of rumors being spread, neither party gets an equal opportunity to reach that level of reconciliation…
Reconciliation really wraps up all of the thoughts about legacy that we have had throughout the past month…Reconciliation is important within a community because it’s about restoring relationships…Sometimes it takes humility in relationships to admit that we have been wrong and seek reconciliation…Deciding that people and relationships are more important than stuff…All ways that we build our legacy…
A couple weeks ago, I shared a story about a time when I had felt hurt and devalued at a meeting…As a result of what happened, I was driven to tears with a friend… After a while, I came to the point where I said, “well, now all that’s left to do is suck it up and deal with it.” And he offered me another kleenex and quietly said, “Can I offer something else? Instead of sucking it up…Offer it up…Give it to God.” It was a way that he was intentionally caring for my well being, but it was also a first step in reconciliation…I would love to be able to stand here right now and say that I have reconciled with each person at that meeting…but it’s not true…Actually I have not reconciled with any of them and to be quite honest, I don’t think that any of them know how I feel about what happened…I didn’t tell any of them what they did to hurt my feeligns…I didn’t even attempt to begin the process of reconciliation. Now some people say that if they don’t reconcile it’s easy for them to just not care anymore…I’d also like to be able to say that, but in my case, everytime I see or hear from those people, I get angry all over again…Reconciliation is as much about our relationships with other people as it is about ourselves…Reconciliation helps our own spiritual and emotional well being as much as others’….
There is a sentence that is repeated often in meetings, prayer circles, services…I’m sure that I’ve used it multiple times myself. You don’t even need to say the whole thing, but everybody always knows what you’re saying when you say, “Where 2 or 3 are gathered…”
Now, there are several things that are going on in this passage…You know Jesus, he likes to mix things up a little bit. This verse comes at the end of the passage where he has been explaining how to handle disagreements or disputes within the church. After giving the specific instructions on how to handle them, the number of people to take with, who to involve and how to react….The process of reconciliation… At the end of this passage, he says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” So, in the midst of that dispute or disagreement, Jesus makes it clear to the people, that he will still be present. Jesus, God made flesh, will not disappear because there’s a little spat…He will still be present. It’s going to take a whole lot more for Jesus to not be present in the midst of life.
The other thing is the clever way that he makes that statement. “I am there among them.” Do you remember back in the Old Testament, when Moses first encountered God in a burning bush, what name God told Moses? God told Moses, “I am, I AM.” God’s name is “I AM”… And Jesus just said, “I am there among them.” I AM there among them…I AM there…I AM…It’s a bold claim, strong and daring, but so comforting at the same time. It’s comforting to know that God is with us at all times…No matter what happens in life. There can be the disputes or there can be something that’s exciting or something that’s mundane and ordinary….God is there…There can be those things that just take your breath away and those things that are so devastating that you can’t bear to talk about them or face what’s just happened…And God is there…There are devastating events that happen…And God is there…
This morning as we celebrate the 2 sacraments in the United Methodist Church—Baptism and Communion…We are reminded once again about reconciliation…In the waters of our baptism, as we are cleansed from sin, we are also reminded that in the midst of that, God has claimed us as God’s child…That as we die to ourselves and rise with Christ, we are reconciled back to God…Then as we come to the Table, we are reminded once again of the reconciliation of ourselves to God through Jesus Christ…God showed us how to participate in reconciliation…Because in the middle of a dispute, God chose to come to those who God was in disagreement with…All human beings…As God came in the form of flesh and blood—in the form of Jesus…The words that Jesus was passing on weren’t just words, but how Jesus lived…
As you come to the table this morning, think about that person that you need to be reconciled with…Maybe it was someone from recent or someone from long ago…As you think about that person and come to the table of reconciliation, pray for the wisdom to be reconciled with that person and for the ways that will happen…And remember that as you go that God is present in the midst of what happens…God calls us to be in a right relationship with God, but also with all people…Let’s follow what God has offered to us in grace so that we may go to others and share that same grace and love…

Tigger or Eeyore?

Tigger or Eeyore?
Well, we continue with our journey looking at our legacies…As we’ve been journeying together, we’ve talked about legacies as not being about our death, but how we live our life…We’ve talked about the importance of deciding what’s important—that it’s people and relationships that matter above stuff…That humility is a wonderful trait to have and one that will help throughout our lives…That as human beings we are meant to be in community with one another and to share our lives together, and the importance of Christian community…And this morning as we also continue to learn from Randy Pausch’s lessons found in his book The Last Lecture, most of these lessons although Randy Pausch doesn’t proclaim them to be a Gospel lesson or a faith based lesson, most of these lessons seem to have a root in faith…And so logically, this morning we’re going to talk about Tigger & Eeyore…Because of course we can find Tigger & Eeyore in the pages of Scripture right?
Well, maybe Tigger & Eeyore aren’t in the pages of Scripture in specific, but their characters are…How many are familiar with Tigger & Eeyore, the characters from Winne the Pooh? Let’s start with Eeyore…What do you know or remember about Eeyore? (Wait for responses)…Eeyore was usually introduced as “gloomy old Eeyore” and had an almost permanent scowl on his face…Maybe it’s because he’s made of sawdust or kept losing his tail…but Eeyore is not known among Hundred Acre Woods as the most cheerful resident…Then there’s Tigger…What do you know or remember about Tigger? (Wait for responses)…Tigger arrived at Winne the Pooh’s house on a blustery night and literally bounced his way into Pooh’s house and the life of all the residents of Hundred Acre Woods…Their tops are made out of rubber and their bottoms are made out of springs…Their bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun…Tigger takes great pride in being the only Tigger and often finds himself in interesting situations because of his bouncing…
Within the characters of Tigger & Eeyore we have some classic and somewhat extreme examples of someone who is positive and someone who is not…And sometimes that’s used in different terms too—an optimist and a pessimist…A Tigger & an Eeyore…As you think about yourself for a moment, what would you consider yourself to be—a Tigger or an Eeyore—an optimist or a pessimist—a positive person or a negative?
Here’s a story that might help to see the difference…There were two twins—one an optimist and one a pessimist…Their differences were so extreme that for their birthday, their parents decided that they would cure them both of their extreme optimism and extreme pessimism…So, for the pessimist, they filled her room with all the fanciest and newest toys and for the optimist they filled her bedroom with horse manure…As they walked into their bedrooms to see what happened, they walked into the pessimist’s bedroom and found her crying in the middle of the room… “Why aren’t you playing with your toys!?!” They asked her… “I’m afraid if I touch any of them, I will break them!” she cried…so they continued on to the optimist’s bedroom and found her diving and searching with a giggle and big grin in the manure in her room… “What are you doing!?!” They asked her… She beamed at them and said, “There’s got to be a horse in here somewhere!!!”
Now there are some people who take great pride in being an Eeyore—they take great pride in raining on everyone’s parade…Sometimes they might acknowledge that they are proud to be an Eeyore and sometimes they don’t even recognize what they’re doing…In the same way there are people who take great pride in being a Tigger—they take great pride in pointing out the positives in any situation…Sometimes they might acknowledge that they are proud to be a Tigger and sometimes they don’t even recognize what they’re doing…Have you stopped to think about which one you are? Or have you stopped to think which one you would like to be?
Now all of this talk about Tiggers & Eeyores, there might be some who are thinking…Okay, how does this tie into faith? Well, all throughout Scripture there are people who can be identified as Tiggers or Eeyores…And this morning we have 2 stories of a Tigger & an Eeyore…Our story from John tells the story of Thomas…Now Thomas is not usually referred to just as Thomas, but as “Doubting Thomas”…Because of his most well known encounter with Jesus after Jesus’ resurrection…Thomas wasn’t with the rest of the disciples when Jesus appeared the first time and told them that he wouldn’t believe that Jesus was truly alive until he put his finger in his hands and side…Now, that had to be discouraging for the other disciples…They were going to have to face some rejection from the world, but here they were facing the rejection right within their own community—someone who was supposed to be their friend and someone who was supposed to support them…And instead Thomas doubts that Jesus is alive and rains on the disciples’ parade? Is Thomas a Tigger or an Eeyore? (response)…Well, a week after Jesus was raised from the dead, he is in a locked room with the other disciples when Jesus appears again…And Jesus tells Thomas to put his finger in his hand and side…Thomas does and then believes…Now, although we may know him as “Doubting Thomas,” it is important to point out that Thomas didn’t always doubt Jesus…He needed proof that Jesus was alive…That even in his Eeyore-like state, Thomas was still able to hear the Good News that Jesus had defeated death…
And our story from Matthew is the story of Peter walking on water…Now if Thomas is an example of an Eeyore—Peter is an example of a Tigger…After Jesus had preached a sermon and taught the crowds, he went away to refresh himself because as everyone knows if you give all of yourself, you don’t really have much to give again! And Jesus knew that it was important to spend time in prayer and renewal…Well, as Jesus is practicing Sabbath, the boat with the disciples starts to drift away and so of course Jesus makes the logical approach to walk to the boat on the water…As Jesus is walking on the water to the boat, the disciples think that they are seeing a ghost walking toward them because certainly a human being can’t walk on water!?! Now one would think that after seeing Jesus perform miracles and teach people, they would know who Jesus was—that Jesus was God in flesh…But, they cry out to this figure and Peter in particular asks that if it truly is Jesus, that he would command Peter to come out to him on the water…Jesus does and Peter walks on the water toward Jesus…A move that took a great deal of faith and knowing that Jesus had called Peter to walk out and therefore nothing would happen to him…Maybe all of those thoughts didn’t have time to run through Peter’s mind…Maybe he just bounced out of the boat toward Jesus! Now, it is true that as Peter realized what was happening, he began to doubt and started to drown…So, some might think…Oh, well there went that Tigger—he’s really an Eeyore in disguise! Well, you could make that assumption…But who was the only one who walked out toward Jesus? And when Peter was drowning, did he give up and say, “Oh well, my own fault…might as well drown here?” No, he cried out in a loud voice and Jesus saved him! It took a lot of faith on Peter’s part both to get out of the boat and to reach for Jesus’ hand…
What are you? Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore and is that what you want to be? Because you can change if you’d like—that’s your decision! Now, Tigger & Eeyore are fictional characters and even throughout their stories, they don’t always fit the mold of being an optimist or a pessimist—there are times when they aren’t always positive or always negative…Even like our stories this morning—Thomas didn’t doubt forever and Peter didn’t bounce all around on the water…But it’s their basic outlook on life that is what matters…Do you look on the bright side of life or are you always looking for life’s tragedies…The truth of the matter is that if you’re only looking for either—you’ll certainly find them…If you look for the tragedies in life you will find them all over the place…and if you look for the celebrations in life you will find them all over the place…Life is full of celebrations and tragedies, but it’s how we deal with them that’s important…
God doesn’t call us to life in the doubt, but Jesus came so that all might have life and have it abundantly! Instead of living in what we don’t have—let’s live in what we do…I went to a youth ministry training and one of their words of wisdom was to eliminate the words “just” and “only” from our vocabulary…Instead of saying, “We only had 2 youth who came to the event.” We should say, “We had 2 youth who came to the event.” Or “We just have 4 in youth group.” Instead, “We have 4 in youth group.” Because by eliminating the “just” or “only”, we give importance to those who are present—we live with what we do have and not constantly looking for what we don’t…We celebrate what we have and don’t mourn what we don’t…If we focus on whatever it is that we don’t have, we still won’t have it…but if we focus on what we do have, we can celebrate it…Jesus calls us to be Tiggers…To live life abundantly…Sometimes it means that we have to get on the boat and walk on the water…and those times that we might start to drown—cry out to Jesus to save us…That we recognize that we can walk on the water…That we can put our finger in Jesus’ hands and side…
So, which are you? A Tigger or an Eeyore? As a church, what would you say that we are? Are you happy with that? If not, what are we going to do to change that? Jesus came so that all might have life and have it abundantly…Let’s live that life and not worry about breaking the pieces…Let’s celebrate what we have and keep reaching out for what we need…Let’s live life abundantly as Tiggers!