Mr. Rogers Series 1

Loving Others; Loving Ourselves—Matt.22: 36-40; I Cor. 13

            It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood! Won’t you be my neighbor? I sometimes wonder if Mr. Rogers thought of this verse about loving your neighbor as he sang this tune every show for over 30 years. Being a good neighbor was of utmost importance to him. So, if I were to ask you what is at the foundation of our faith, you might answer a cross, an empty tomb, or if you’re a bit more theology school minded, you may say justifying grace and prevenient grace, or if you grew up Baptist or “bapticostal” like I did, you might have heard, “Once in grace, always in grace.”

We usually fall back on the things we’ve known or learned in our sermon/Sunday School journey. But in the Gospel of Matthew for today, we hear Jesus tell it simply. The foundation of our faith, the most important commandments as Jesus says are these: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Or as one teacher said to me—"Love God, your neighbor too, and be a little gentle on yourself from time to time.”

            Mr. Rogers spent 33 years of his life teaching children…and by extension their parents and adults…how to be healthy, loving, and well-adjusted people in this world. He didn’t thunder from a pulpit, nitpick over theology in a classroom, or anything like that. Instead, he looked right into a camera to thousands of people and said, “I love you just the way you are.” In 1979 he wrote, “When we hear the word that we are not lovable, we are not hearing the Word of God. No matter how unlovely, how impure or weak or false we may feel ourselves to be, all through the ages, God has still called us lovable.” Why is love so important to us as followers of Christ? And how do we practice it as God would have us do?

            All throughout the New Testament, the writers stress the importance of love. Here, Jesus teaches that loving God first and foremost and loving our neighbors are two of the most important and consequential actions of our faith. All of the law, the words of the prophets, literally everything known and written in the faith hangs on these two commandments. They are our standardized test for how we live our faith. I Corinthians 13 tells us that all the speaking abilities, prophetic abilities, knowledge, faith, and generosity in the world are all for naught, all useless, if we don’t live in love.

            How do we live this? Well, love is patient. Love is kind, never jealous, nor boastful, nor proud, nor rude. Love works in kindness, gentleness, forgiveness, earnest hope, justice, and never giving up. And in particular, we are told, love does not demand its own way. Too often we say, “I love you, but…” A wise English teacher once said that anytime you add however, but, or qualifier like that to a sentence, you plan on negating the first part of that sentence.

            Imagine if we say, “I love you, but you have to do this the way I want.” It implies that if we fail or do differently, we are no longer loved. Jesus acknowledged shortcomings, faults, failures, growing places, but Jesus also offer a caveat-free, condemnation free forgiving, redeeming love for all of us. This is why I can’t stand the theologically false statement, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” It ain’t in the Bible. And it’s wrong. In fact, the Bible says, God did not send his son into the world to condemn it and tells us to judge not or we’ll be judged too. It's not our job to hate sin, judge sin, fix sin. It’s our job to love people, then let them and God worry about what they’re doing. I John 4:8 says that if you don’t know love, then you don’t know God, for God is love. That’s our calling.

            In the 1950s and 1960s America went through a rather ugly period on love, gentleness, and race relations. It was the beginning of the end for a system that kept people of different skin colors separate physically and socially. It was a time where white and black people couldn’t even share a pool at a motel. When protestors got into a pool at a motel to show that nothing earth-shattering would happen from sharing a pool, the manager poured acid in the pool as payback

            Thankfully, no one was hurt. This kind of hatred, though, wasn’t forever ago. It occurred in 1964. Here’s a photo of the two men who were in the pool. They’re in their 70s now, and still remember the pool, the acid, being jailed wet and in just a bathing suit, but most of all, they remember the hate they felt and could not understand.

            Into this tense, unjust, and unloving atmosphere, Mr. Rogers spoke words of love and nurture. He said, “Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people.” Then on a make-believe hot day on his show, in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood, he put his feet in a pool. And he invited the police officer to join him. It was the first time people had ever seen a white person and a black person share a pool together on television.

[SLIDE]

            Love, you see, is connected to justice, patience, kindness, gentleness, and not being demanding, rude, or belittling. I Corinthians 13: 6 says [Love] does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.” Perhaps drawing upon these words in Corinthians, Fred Rogers said once, "Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now."

            How do we practice love as followers of Christ? First, we remember that love is sacrificially giving. The example is that Jesus suffered for us and the world. Second, love is not filled with caveats, buts, howevers, or any other qualifiers. If you qualify your love, then it becomes worthless and a clanging cymbal at best. Love is not a tool (or weapon) to fix people. It’s a disciplined practice of people who claim to follow Jesus—who is, as one hymn said, “The King of Love my Shepherd is.” Love and judgment cannot coexist in the same place. One is redeeming, and other is condemning. We don’t get to do either. Our mission is to love others like God loves them and tell them that God loves them. Period. End of story. Anything else can be worked out between them and God.

             In a world of hate, anger, injustice, politics, and irritability, may we be a Mister Rogers, reminding folks that God calls on us to do two things—and these two things are the foundation of all the law and prophets as well as the very fabric of our lives of faith. Love God with all your being. Love others as well. If you want a little glimpse of the power love has to make a difference, we need look no further than Officer Francois Clemmons (which is the actor’s real name) who dared to put his feet in the same pool as Mr. Rogers on national television.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqSBqfDgOsQ

            “Love is fragile as your tears; love is stronger than your fears. When you heart can sing another’s gladness, then your heart is full of love. When your heart can cry another’s sadness, then your heart is full of love.” Every moment we live and breathe is an opportunity to share the God’s love. Don’t miss the opportunity.

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/1059288895906637

Be Careful What You Ask For

I Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14; Eph. 5: 15-20

            I hear a lot of people saying these days, “Oh I’m going to get my life together,” or the alternative, “I’m going to get my life in order.” Typically, the person telling me this is on day three of not knowing where the laundry is, 2 packs deep into a dinner of Oreos and a stick of gum for lunch, followed by enough coffee to cause them to hear the color blue. Or my favorite was the email a coworker shared with me, “Dear Jenny, I’m sorry, I have lost control of this day. Can we reschedule?” Everywhere we go, we have a sense of too much, all at once, overload, and overwhelmed.” I remember a point this week in driving back and forth to Adel for work where I simply resigned myself to the fact that I had lost all ability to manage answering emails, phone calls, and texts.

            When it comes to these ideas of getting oneself together, finding some balance, or reclaiming my time (as the phrase popularized in the halls of Congress goes), I say this…be careful what you ask for. The answer may demand something different of you instead of altering the universe to make it easier for you. And as people who love control, that’s hard.

            In our lesson from I Kings, we learn that Solomon was a good man and a good king. He followed after God’s heart and loved God. But Solomon knew his shortcomings. He knew that the job of being king and governing these people was too much for him to do alone. He would be overwhelmed. In fact, he says to God, “And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted…who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” Solomon knew he was unable to do this alone.

            He asked God to give him and understanding heart knowing the difference between right and wrong. In essence he asks for God to help him and to give him wisdom. Sometimes, when we are overwhelmed, we focus on the wrong thing. We pray about the problem. We ask God to fix the problem, to solve it, to take us around it. Stop praying about the problem. God doesn’t fix problems, save problems, love problems, redeem problems. God deals with you. God fixes us, saves us, loves us, and redeems us. Instead of praying over problems and wasting your time there, pray for God to work in your life instead…to give you wisdom, and to know what needs to be done. To pray over a problem is to keep God at arm’s length. Pray for God’s power, strength, and wisdom directly into your life.

            Solomon asked for God to work in and through him. He didn’t pray over the many quarrels, disputes, wars, territory questions, and administration problems. He prayed that God would work in and through him. And that seems to have worked and pleased God. God says that Solomon will receive what he asked for. But because Solomon prayed for the right thing, God also blessed him tremendously.

A friend of mine was preparing to defend her doctoral thesis. It was complicated, and she was not sure she could do it between the difficulty of the subject and her fear of public speaking. I asked how to pray. She didn’t tell me to pray that she would succeed, that it would work, or that God would make everything okay like magic. This was her prayer, “Guide me O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim in this barren land. I am weak, but you are mighty. Hold me with your unchanging hand.” She couldn’t fix what she had to deal with in front of her review committee. But she could make sure she went in armed with all the power of God and accompanied by the hosts of Heaven.

Now, if First Kings gives us the prayer we need, Ephesians gives us a second round of good advice to help out. We are told not to live like fools, but to be wise and make the most of our opportunities. Sometimes, I think we become so busy and overwhelmed that we become unable to accomplish anything. Never mind getting my life together, I can’t even get a half a brain cell to focus for 2 minutes. Ephesians gives a rather sharp retort to this, “Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” The way to prevent thoughtlessness, says the Ephesians writer, is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

I had a couple of good role models on this. Every Saturday when my mom did the cleaning, and I “sorta” helped slightly as a surly teenager, she listened to Christian music. Now sometimes it was Rod Stewart or Eric Clapton, but often it was Christian music that accompanied the long list of chores. On Sunday afternoons, I would stay after the family dinner at Granny’s and practice hymn playing on her horrendously out of tune Wurlitzer piano while she did odds and ends around the house. That sense of faith and melodies of testimony echoed through the rooms filling the home with God’s spirit as the chores were done.

The two big takeaways of Ephesians are being filled with the Holy Spirit and giving thanks for everything. These are common themes echoed by Paul. It’s very good advice, but we must also be careful what we ask for here. Being filled with the Holy Spirit and being grateful in all things are hard tasks. The easiest temptation is to become angry, insular, and bitter when challenges come our way. It can be easy to be filled with a whole lot of other things than the Holy Spirit when the interview doesn’t turn out right, our dreams are delayed, what we want is a fleeting reality. That’s why the hymn writers speak so powerfully. In those times, we are told to “hold to God’s unchanging hand.”

My cousin shared a post the other day on the interwebs. It said, “Pressure is a privilege. It means things are expected of you.” But as people of faith, it’s not just about what we accomplish. We must look to how we accomplish it. Anyone can succeed being drug along kicking and screaming. But do we pray that God would raise up in us the courage to meet the challenge and to lead with dignity and strength? Do we go to God, like Solomon, asking not for blessings in life, but for character and Christ-like wisdom?

God’s final words to Solomon are this, “And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commandments as your father, David, did, I will give you a long life.” In particular, that life would include the “aforementioned” blessings God described. This is what Solomon had to hold onto. For us it’s a bit different. If we follow Christ, then the promise is that God is always with us—God’s Spirit rest in our very being. And that promise sees us through all the times we gather up the laundry, attempt cook healthy, try to catch up on work, calls, emails, and so on, and try to get our lives together.

Only, that Spirit of God doesn’t just rest with us; it works within us as well. As Paul said, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit.” That sounds easy, but it’s like trying to be healthy when the plate of cookies is right next to you. You may not be able to pray that the cookies disappear, but you can pray that God will help you not to go on a diabetes-inducing, cookie-eating frenzy. And if you listen, God will help.

Solomon saw his shortcomings, and he knew he needed God. His role was clear—he was now king, and there was no going back nor avoiding the challenges that lay ahead of him. But Solomon took the opportunity of God’s favor to ask God for what he needed to face the journey. You can’t always change the journey, but you can fix how you navigate it. Solomon prayed for wisdom, and God granted it, and so much more. Be careful what you ask for, but also be prepared, because God stands ready to hear you and answer you when you pray.

 Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/518099890668478

Good Advice

Good Advice—Psalm 34: 1-8; Ephesians 4:25-5:2

            A hard truth that I have learned as I get older is that parents really stop offering all that free advice after some point. As a teenager and youth in the early to late 20s, parents are willing to offer all sorts of advice. The problem, you see, is that teenagers and young adults are headstrong enough that they don’t listen. I know that was true for me. Youth are gung-ho, bulldozer-like in moving forward and often learning the hard way. Now that I’m in my late thirties approaching early forties, I ask for advice all the time, and I know many of my friends do the same. How long do I heat this in the oven? How do I get this stain out? What car should I buy? What’s the best way to negotiate? How do I get my taxes right? How do I avoid jury duty…and so on…

            The problem is, at that point, parents are tired and done. I can’t tell you how many times my friends have complained about the response, “You’re an adult. Go figure it out.” NO! NO! Now is when I need the help, when I’m finally smart enough to listen to it! Such is life, I guess. One of my favorite things about the scriptures, and in particular the Gospels and Epistles is that we don’t just get words of salvation and grace. We also get words of wisdom, good advice for how to live on this earth in our life’s journey. That is what today’s Epistle does for us—it provides us with some good advice.

            One of the first things we see is that faith demands a sense of change from us. There’s a whole laundry list of ways to behave properly: don’t lie, don’t let anger get ahold of you, don’t steal, don’t say hateful stuff, don’t bring sorrow to God’s Spirit, and then riding ourselves of all types of bad characteristics. Running around while filled with bitterness, rage, anger, harassing words, and slander is probably not a good way to live. It is both bad for us personally, and it ruins our ability to claim the goodness of God in our hearts.

            When we say we have faith, it should cause a change in our heart and behavior. It should lead us to deal gently with others. The same Christ whom we follow said to love enemies, love your neighbor, bless those who treat you badly, turn the other cheek, and so on. That’s a tall order. If someone is being a snotwad, I’d much prefer to smack them in the head than bless them. A friend of mine said, “Remember Jesus said to bless those who persecute you, not bless them out.” Following Jesus and living in this world requires us to give up some of the old ways of doing things.

            It reminds me of the story of a boy in elementary school. He and another little boy got into an argument, and he ended up hitting that boy pretty hard on the playground. The teacher made him go apologize for hitting the other kid. About 10 minutes later he hit the kid again. The very irritated teacher asked why he did that again. And the boy replied, “Oh it’s fine, I’ll just apologize again later.” That’s not how it works. Forgiveness and apologies are not a license for bad behavior. It’s like a church sign I saw said, “Don’t be a jerk, follow Jesus instead.”

            Instead, we are given the push from this letter to the Ephesians that we should “imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are [God’s] dear children.” The letter goes on to say, “Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.” This was a big theme for Paul. He often directed wayward or fledgling churches to mirror or imitate other churches that were following Christ closely. He also calls on people repeated to imitate Jesus. Imitating Jesus is how we live when we change these old attitudes.

            A friend of mine once asked, “So, if I’m to imitate Jesus, how do I do that because I see a lot of Christians who don’t seem so Jesus-y.” Look to the Gospels. Follow Jesus in the way he lived his life and presented a life of faith in the Gospels. He was kind and gentle with people—never condemning the woman at the well nor the woman accused of adultery. He tried to teach and help when correcting Peter and explaining things to Nicodemus. He upended the order of power and might with his teachings on the Beatitudes. None of these things are easy. Why is it we see the Ten Commandments posted everywhere, but no one posts the Beatitudes? How many places do you see that nailed to the bulletin board or on a monument in front of the building? What Jesus taught is often very hard to live, but it’s the best advice we have for journeying through this life.

            There are many examples of the struggle to imitate Jesus. How many people do you see today taking the opportunity NOT to cast the first stone. We’ve become a society which carries an entire bag of rocks ready to go. That’s not Jesus, and that’s not imitating Jesus. How many alleged Christians confuse and co-mingle their faith and their politics? Jesus said to give to Caesar what is Caesars and unto God what is God’s. They are not the same thing. How many people live in fear and dread in this world oppressed in their own mind by a lack of trust? Jesus said, “Behold, I go to prepare a place for you.” How many times do we look down on other people for their gender, race, ability, and love, when Jesus said, “Judge not lest you be judged,” and by your own hefty standards. We’d all fail on that, for Jesus reminded all have sinned and fallen short.

            Any way you go in this life if you’re not following Jesus and imitating the way in which Jesus lived, served, and taught, then you can very easily fall into the trap of becoming a jerk. I think Paul would call it a godless heathen, but jerk sounds a lot more theologically appropriate. Jesus gave us a way to live in this world. There are 7.9 billion humans in this world, and 333 million in the United States alone. We have to find a way to live and work together or life will be miserable.

            Human behavior can become exploitive, greedy, insensitive, and prejudiced. But Jesus gives us this beautiful image of a good way of life to follow. A friend of mine posted something on Facebook which said, “How we walk with the broken speaks louder than how we sit with the great.” Paul highlights the most poignant parts: don’t lie, don’t be angry, don’t be a thief, don’t go around creating a miserable existence for everyone you encounter. The scriptures tell us that the JOY of the Lord is our strength.

            Following Jesus and imitating him is not for the faint of heart. One of the reasons I like asking my mom for advice a lot more now that I’m older is I’ve learned there’s a family trait of doing things the hard way. And I’m hoping to avoid this family trait. In some ways that symptomatic of our society. We tend to do things the hard way because we don’t listen to good advice…or listen at all really. Throughout the ages, God has never stopped speaking, leading, guiding, giving wisdom and understanding. The struggle is on our side. Do we listen?

            I learned a lot of things from good advice in life. I know the importance of being friendly and kind from my mother. I know how to cook from my grandmothers, and what secrets get things done better. I know how to farm and grow crops from my grandfathers. And I know how to ride a four-wheeler ATV at breakneck speeds in the mountains without crashing from my dad. All through life, we have people who are willing to give us advice, encouragement, and little tidbits of wisdom, if we are willing to listen.

            The same is true with God. “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in [God]!” says the Psalm. “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are [God’s] dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.” The wisdom is there—take refuge in God and imitate the example of Christ. Why do things the hard way when we can follow Jesus’ way instead?

Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/1246248236741403

It's a Sign!

Exodus 16: 2-4, 9-15; John 6: 24-35

            In 1996, a comedian named Bill Engvall created a comedy routine called “Here’s Your Sign.” They were always a commentary on people saying or doing silly things. One example he told is this: “A man pulls into a gas station with a flat tire. The gas station attendant says, ‘Tire go flat?’ The man responds, ‘Nope, the other three just swelled up on me.’ Here’s your sign.” My friend’s grandfather loved it. He watched every single episode. Bill Engvall toured with Jeff Foxworthy, whose routine included, “You Might Be a Redneck If…” and Larry the Cable Guy, who said, “That’s funny, I don’t care who you are.”

            Now while my friend’s grandfather loved all three, he particularly loved the “Here’s Your Sign” schtick. So, he ended up having himself a little sign made that said, “Here’s Your Sign,” which he held up to people when they did things that might not be so smart or wise. It was cute and endearing unless you were on the receiving end of the sign being held up at you. But it was a sign, nonetheless.

            In Jesus’s day, the masses constantly asked for a sign, and not much has changed in our modern times. I heard a lady on the news the other day talk about her diet plan of prayer. God was giving her a sign by showing her visions of food to eat or giving her a sign on a restaurant menu of what foods would be good for her. We hear a lot of talk thrown around about things being a sign from God. We, just like the people of Jesus’s day, are a people who need and want signs in life. And sometimes that leads us to find signs in everything whether it’s there or not.

Jesus teaches the people in our Gospel story for today. He calls on them to believe in him and follow his teaching—the very standard lesson that seems so hard for them to understand. They ask Jesus in verse 30, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Now, these people are asking for a sign. Jesus had “heretofore” walked on water, fed over 5,000 miraculously, healed a paralyzed man, healed an official’s son, prophesied to the Samaritan woman, and turned the water into wine. Yet, they want another sign.

The problem is the people were inundated with signs. Every movement of the moon, weather event, trickster, fraud, false prophet, leader, temple priest, and soothsayer gave the people signs. People in Jesus’s day would follow anyone and everyone who showed any hint of an unexplainable sign at all. They wanted the same from Jesus…over, and over, and over. But not everything is a sign. And sometimes we are too trusting.

If we look at every single coincidence, difficulty, every single point by point, moment of each day, or as the hymn says, “in all of life’s ebb and flow,” and find signs in everything, we will be torn apart looking for directions. A pinball bounces off every directional barrier it comes into contact with. Faith is never like a pinball bouncing from sign to sign hoping for the best. Faith is found in a steadfast, dedicated endurance to following Jesus in this often-difficult world.

Sometimes we see every illness, every difficult day, every song on the radio or streaming music as a sign. There are pastors (I won’t say charlatans) who exploit natural disasters calling them signs from God. God doesn’t need a hurricane to make a point. If you recall, God often speaks in a still, small voice. When God wants your attention, you’ll know it within—in the soul. But there are voices around us and sometimes within us which make our dedicated endurance seem impossible, but Jesus said to those who wanted a sign, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” When you follow Christ with dedicated endurance, you will not be lost, hungering, or thirsting, or seeking a way through.

Sometimes, however, we struggle with what we perceive and know in our limited way as humans. Our Hebrew lesson tells how the Jewish people, now free from Egypt, turned on Moses because they believed God would not feed them—they believed the signs and voices that bounced them around from faith to fear to frenzy. Listening to every single difficult and negative voice in life had them convinced that going back to Egypt, to slavery, to oppression, to beatings, suffering, and all of that inhumanity was a good idea because they didn’t believe that the same God who parted the Red Sea in front of them could give them food in the desert. Some folks wander into the wilderness and never come out.

I remember when Simone Biles, the Olympian in gymnastics, pulled out of competition in 2021 for personal and mental health reasons. Many said she was letting her team down, letting the United States down, her career was over, and she should go away. As of this week she has 9 Olympic medals and 30 World Championships making her the most decorated gymnast in history…at the age of 27. You see, she listed to the voice, the sign that she needed rest and to recharge, instead of the voices which condemned her seeing her as only a useful tool and not as a human in need of human things in life.

            God will give you signs and directions—a calling, and the wisdom on how to move forward in life, if we listen. Jesus said to the crowd in the gospel that signs from humans and worldly things are a waste of time. Instead, he called on them to focus their attention on him. He told them that Moses did not give signs. Only God gives signs. And the bread received in the wilderness is from God, just like the bread of life, the hope of the world, is also a sign and a gift from God.

            Jesus called them to dedicated endurance not following every whimsy they perceived as a sign. He tells them to stop worrying about temporary things and to focus their time, energy, and concern on God. Now hear me when I say that I believe God gives us signs in life. I believe God directs us in this life. But I also believe we spend too much time looking for 100 different answers and not enough time actually following where God leads us. An old mentor of mine used to say, “Look for the open door. God won’t make you climb through a window or break into where you shouldn’t be. Look for the open door.”

            Instead, we should approach life with a dedicated endurance to following God. Look for the open door and then set your life and faith to following where God is calling. Faith is not a life of signs and wonders. It’s a life of dedicated endurance to living in a Christ-like way in this world, sharing the good news, helping those in need, and representing the kingdom of God here on earth.

            My English teacher in high school had a big poster in the front of room. It read, “Don’t let your mind wander, it’s too little to be left alone.” As a teenager, I found that insulting because teenagers know everything, right? As an adult with moderate anxiety who reads entire scenarios of doom and gloom into every single email, text message, or conversation, I think I get it now. Everything in life is not a sign from God. God gives us the pathway, the open door, and a calling forward in life. We respond with the dedicated endurance to where God is leading in faith.

            Let me finish up with this. Maybe everything in life isn’t a sign from God, and maybe God isn’t like the comedian holding up a sarcastic, “Here’s Your Sign” at us. But if you need evidence that God will open the door, consider this. In 2011, Rev. John Carroll said I should consider the ministry. I advised that I was happy at the piano, and unless there was a burning bush, there was no way. Rev. Carroll asked what a burning bush looked like, and I said a unanimous vote at First Christian, believing that would never happen in a Disciples congregation. But sometimes God holds the door open for us, and says, “Alright, let’s go.” May we be ready.

 Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/1560241597896257

Food and Faith

Food and Faith—II Kings 4:42-44; John 6: 1-14

            Today’s topic is a favorite of many of us…food. Down in the South, there is a saying when it comes to mealtime and whether or not one is hungry. People will say, “Oh I know how to eat now.” This week, however, I experienced a moment when I didn’t know how to eat. While at Jekyll Island for my conference, I was invited by a coworker to “crab night” where we eat crabs and low country boil type of food. Now, let me preface this with…this Appalachian boy grew up far enough away from the ocean that “Fresh Seafood” was listed in the freezer section of the grocery store. I am quite the novice at eating crabs and peeling shrimp.

            As everyone else set in eating away with their nutcracker and little gadget utensils I’d never seen, I’m sitting there utterly confounded. I’m hoping my friend who grew up in Miami whose family is of Bahamian descent will take pity on me and help me, but no help cometh my way. So, I begin without any care or caution cracking, opening, and pulling apart these sea creatures. Honestly, I looked like a hot mess with crab bits flying everywhere, and ate more shell than crab, so after one, I focused on anything else on the dinner table. I was incredibly grateful for the fellowship even if I became the featured entertainment at dinner.

            Jesus often uses food as a way of teaching or making a point in the Gospels. That is because food is one of the few areas of life where we have to have it to survive, and we actually enjoy it. We’re appreciate air, but in the end, it is air and we simply breathe it. We need other bodily processes, movements, baths, and so on to survive, but they done come with the same creativity, passion, and craving that food has in our lives. Three things stick out from our lessons today: gathering, generosity, and greatness.

            First, we read that “a huge crowd kept following [Jesus] wherever he went because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick.” John tells us that wherever Jesus went, the crowds were there. They were his entourage or his groupies coming to see the miracles that Jesus would perform. And when they gathered here, the first question Jesus asks is what are we going to feed them? If you go into any southerner’s house, the first thing you will probably be offered is some kind of food and drink. It’s to restore, nourish, and provide hospitality.

            The church is the same. We come here to be fed—literally in the Lord’s Supper, and figuratively in prayer, praise, and Word. Jesus’s words have a double meaning—literally he was asking how they planned to feed those gathered, and underneath it, he knew that in addition to the bread and fish, they were going to get their faith fed as well that day. Rule of thumb for the church—when you gather people together, feed them physically and spiritually.

            Here we do that both in the parlor snacks and in nourishing the soul. And truthfully, we should feed the physical hunger first, because no one who is hungry or hangry will listen to a nourishing word, nor should we hold them hostage to a sermon before we offer food. When Jesus gathered people, he almost always fed them—here in the miracle story, at the Passover before the crucifixion, at the wedding in Cana providing the wine more so than food. He gave examples of wedding banquets, went to dine with Zacchaeus, told of fig trees, fields of grain, and grapes. Jesus connected gathering with feeing those who gathered both with actual food and with faith examples.

            But a bigger point in this gospel story is the generosity at work. There was no way Jesus and his disciples could afford to feed over 5,000 people. But there was a young boy who had some bread and fish. And from that small bit of food, thousands were fed. Some scholars say that this was a true magical miracle where a small bit of food was miraculously replenished every single distribution. Other scholars say the miracle was in Jesus convincing a greedy people to share what they had with one another until all were filled. It’s another point that where it’s less important how Jesus did the miracle. Focus on the lesson—the generosity.

            In 2020 in Georgia, 562,000 children ages 18 and below faced food insecurity and hunger. And 426,000 children in Georgia live in poverty. At some point in the scriptures, Jesus advises that the poor will always be with you. But here, here in the Gospel of John, the first question Jesus asks is, “How do we feed these people?” And it is the generosity of a likely rather poor boy who had some small fish and barley loaves. How do we know the boy was poor? Barley was the bread of the impoverished. Wheat was the bread of the wealthy.

            In a world focused on wealth and power, Jesus calls us to practice generosity. There’s a bit of a tradition in Appalachia, where I grew up, and the South where I now live. If someone invites you to dinner, you bring something with you. That practice held true at crab night. I brough some specialty honey, another brought a key lime pie, a third person brought some local cheese and fruit, and the final one cooked the food. If we want to live in a world of kindness and Christ-like ways, then generosity must be our common practice, and we must no longer tolerate things like hunger and poverty where resources are abundant.

            And finally, we read of greatness. Jesus gathered the people, showed them generosity, and in response, they saw his greatness. John’s Gospel tells us, “When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, ‘Surely he is the Prophet we have been expecting!’” John leans heavily into the miracle side of this story. We’re told that Jesus already knows what he’s going to do here. We’re told that the bread is distributed first, and five loaves feed over 5,000 people as well as two fish following. It’s described as a “miraculous sign” which is often attributed to the most unexplainable things Jesus does.

            We’re also told that the scraps of bread are gathered because there should be no waste. Interestingly they don’t gather the fish in John, do you know why? You ever smelled leftover fish in the Middle Eastern heat? Not even Jesus can do a miracle on that mess. Part of Jesus’s ministry is that there is generosity, greatness, authority, and nothing wasted. No one and nothing go unnoticed or ignored by Jesus. Instead of throwing out the leftover bread, Jesus gathers it so that more may soon be bed.

            Faith is the same—we practice generosity, and no one goes ignored or unnoticed. Living our faith means everyone gets a seat at the table and the opportunity to know and experience Christ for themselves. II Peter 3:9 reminds us that God does not want any to suffer or perish physically or spiritually, but calls on us to offer a word of hope that might nourish every soul. Lest you wonder about it, the Great Commission itself says that we are to teach and share to the ends of the earth, setting a table, preparing a meal, and generously practicing the love and welcome of Christ with all whom we encounter.

            There’s a saying at my friend’s church: “We meet to eat, and we eat to meet.” Dinner with my coworkers was an amazing experience of fun and fellowship and conversation. I may still have no idea how to eat a crab without being miserably awkward. But I can guarantee you I felt welcomed at the table. Who do we invite to gather at our table? Who receives the generosity of our food and our faith? Who comes to be nourished from our faith and experience and learns of the greatness of God to love, heal, and save? Jesus has set the table for you. Now go and share the goodness of God with others.

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/7814083108688639

You Belong

“You Belong” Psalm 24; Ephesians 3: 1-14

            “Kia Ora” is the way one greets another person in the traditional Māori language of New Zealand. In general, it means, “Hello.” But there’s a deeper meaning. It acknowledges a welcome to the whole person—where they come from and especially who they come from. It is a welcoming hello to a person as well as a blessing that sees both the physical and spiritual aspects of the person. This a custom shared across many faiths and cultures. In high church they begin with, “The Lord be with you,” to which the congregation responds, “And also with you.” In Arabic, whether religious or social, the phrase is “As-Salaam-Alaikum,” meaning, “Peace be upon you.” In Jewish tradition, it is “Shalom Aleichem.” And here, we usually say, “Howdy, y’all!” Different cultures, similar greeting.

            Each of these greetings communicate a welcome that speaks to the physical presence of the person as well as the spiritual aspect to the person. And all of them communicate something beyond simply saying welcome—it’s a sense that you belong to the community. Paul wrote in our Epistle for today about such a sense of belonging. In the early days of faith, it was generally believed that following Jesus was open to Jewish people, and not necessarily Gentiles. In order to properly follow Jesus, Gentiles must convert to Judaism, be circumcised, then find Christ.  It was a long and difficult process that did not go straight to Jesus but took a roundabout road. Paul challenged that notion with an expansive idea of belonging and welcome.

            Paul writes, “And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children.” He goes on to write that essentially both belong to Christ equally, in the same way. This was an incredibly challenging idea to the more Jewish-oriented members of faith and astounding to Gentiles who were always considered outsiders. But Paul was a big advocate of people coming directly and personally to God. He wrote over and over again of this sense of belonging to God’s family, children of God, heirs of God. Paul’s understanding of Christ was personal, relational, and intimate in the way a close and trusted family member would be.

            The church should practice this same sense of welcome and belonging. Our mission and work should reflect what Paul writes here. We should usher folks “boldly and confidently into God’s presence.” When I was in Danville, Kentucky, I played a couple of services for a local church which shall remain nameless. It was not the Disciples of Christ church, so don’t worry. I asked one of the townspeople I was friends with to describe this church. Her response was a smile and to say, “It’s one of the nicest country clubs we’ve got.” That’s not what church was intended to be. Paul reminds us that God’s purpose in everything was that the church display God’s wisdom. But the church should also display that hello, welcome, and convey the idea that you belong.

            The reason for it is found in the Psalm. The words of our hymn, “This Is My Father’s World” are echoed in Psalm 24…”The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to God.” We belong here because the Creator created us, fashioned us, and placed us here in the world to belong. If people feel like they don’t belong at church, in our presence, or in this world, then we have failed at one of our most basic callings from God. The Good News was not meant to be guarded or limited. Paul teaches of God’s plan that the Good News should be expansively told and the House of God to extend a wide welcome telling all—Gentile and Jew—and everyone alike, “You belong.”

            The truth is you and I belong here not because of a human invitation, or membership policy, or conversion letter. We belong because the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it—and God has created it all. I feel like we could have done without wasps and cockroaches, but I guess they’re God’s little critters too. The church is the very representative of God’s welcome and belonging here on earth. Sometimes we struggle with people who are different, but I imagine the admission of Gentiles was a hard pill to swallow for the Jewish churches in Paul’s day. Yet God gave a mission and a calling that included both.

            Many believe Paul wrote this letter from prison as he references trials and suffering. His plea from captivity was that the church would not be factious and contentious separated by Jew and Gentile as well as other factions. He encouraged them to be THE church, perhaps different in practice and style, but united in Christ as the head and foundation. Though Paul respected the diversity of Corinth, Ephesus, Jerusalem, and Galatia, he called on them to understand that there were not different Jesuses, different churches, different organizations. There was neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, woman nor man, for all are one in Christ. There is THE church and THE faith to which we belong.

Paul’s pleas are echoed in another letter from jail. In May of 1963, at a time when racial strife was at its peak in the United States, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his famous “Letters from a Birmingham Jail.” His words draw on the theme penned by Paul centuries earlier. Dr. King wrote, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly....Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.” His meaning is clear and unambiguous—you belong. I think American educator Edwin Markham sums it up nicely in his poem, “He drew a circle that shut me out- Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him in!”

One of my favorite things about New Zealand was the work being done to bring some harmony and mutuality between the indigenous Māori people and the English settlers. For several years, there has been a concerted effort to use both the English word as well as the Māori word for different things. Streets, cities, trash bins, everything with a label has both languages on it to offer that sense of mutuality and understanding between the two cultures. It’s a testimony of how two very different peoples can live, work, and exist together in a relatively small space on the island.

Paul understood how important this was. He worked hard to connect with the different peoples and cultures to whom he told the Good News of God’s love. He made himself part of the family and fabric of the places he went. He adapted and conformed to make the Good News understandable and relatable without compromising the truth. It was never about Saul the former Jewish Pharisee telling this story of a Jew named Jesus whom they killed. It was about Paul, the Apostle, telling the Good News of love, welcome, and grace found in the person of Jesus and the hope of a risen Savior who welcomed Jew and Gentile, white and black, poor and rich, native or immigrant, all peoples everywhere. And we are given that same calling as Paul the Apostle, to tell the Good News of a Savior who offers love, grace, and hope to everyone.

The church must be about the work of sharing the Good News, no matter to whom, what background, or where they came from or presently find themselves. The Good News is for every single person on the planet. It is our mission to usher people boldly and confidently into God’s presence and to leave them filled with hope and welcome in a church designed for all. So, Kia Ora. You belong here.

 Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/809124414620159  

Tough Answers 5

Tough Answers—Authority Question: Job 38: 1-11;  Mark 4: 35-41

            Years ago, I went on vacation with Mom and Nana to Las Vegas. Most of glamour was lost on my high school self from a country-bumpkin town in Appalachia. But I will never forget the flight back. There was a worker strike at the time, so we ended up being routed from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, to Atlanta, to Knoxville. And the plane from Atlanta to Knoxville looked like a child’s toy. As this was June, one of those short-lived severe thunderstorms sprang up on the flight from Atlanta to Knoxville.

            Y’all…I have never prayed so hard in my life as when that plane with two seats on one side and one on the other started bouncing and swaying like it was dancing the Tango. I came several inches out of the seat. The flight attendant’s cart flew away sending Ginger Ale hurling all over the people behind it. And the middle-aged man in a suit next to me fell asleep and slumped over on my 16-year-old shoulder, snoring, like nothing was happening. I don’t know if his peace and comfort was medically induced or not, but by golly, one day I want to be that unbothered.

            Today’s Gospel and Hebrew lessons are stories about control, authority, and the ability to find peace when we have neither. Job’s discussion with God here, or rather, his lecture from God, comes near the end of the book. Job has, at some point, criticized God. We learn that God says to him (after a whole other chapter of lecturing him), “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” God spends 71 verses over two chapters reminding Job of the sheer majesty and magnificence of God’s ability to create, bring life, redeem, restore, and deliver.

            Job is speaking from a temporary time of suffering in an eternity of God’s authority and care. Job seems to believe that God is uncaring in his time of suffering. But, as a theme for both of these scriptures, remember that unbothered does not mean uncaring. One can still provide all the care in the world but be unbothered or unconcerned about the struggle because of the knowledge that the temporary struggle is not the final outcome. Both Job and Mark’s Gospel speak to the power of God to tame the chaos and bring order into all of life.

            In ancient mythology and in the imagery created by Biblical writers, the sea is often seen as a hostile force, something often battled and tamed by those of power. It’s no mistake that Jesus calmed the raging sea in the Gospel. This miracle would have resonated with all who saw it and heard about it because it was so familiar to them. We see the imagery in Job, in the Gospels, in Psalm 107, in the creation story of Genesis. The chaos of the raging sea has a place in God’s creation and redemption specifically in that God sets boundaries and restrictions on the chaos to keep it in check.

            In our Gospel Jesus sleeps through the raging storm while the disciples are gripped by fear and panic that they will all drown. But when they call out to Jesus, he simply says, “Peace, be still,” and the storm is done. One commentator noted that Jesus uses the same language on the storm that used with demons. It’s almost as if Jesus is casting out the storm in the same way he addressed and cast out evil spirits. Here is why it’s important that it’s a storm. In Jesus’s day, any sorcerer, magician, or exorcist was believed to be able to cast out a bad spirit from a person. But only God could control the weather. In silencing the storm, Jesus asserts the power of God to the people.

            Why does all this matter? Well, for Mark’s church this was a powerful story. Marks’ church was suffering and under extensive persecution. This story pulled them away from what they were facing and reminded them who they were following, and the power that God has. Faith in God is easy when everything is going well. An easy life makes for an easy walk with God. But when the storm is raging, we are often left with a lack of trust. All we can see is the storm. And sometimes, the storm is overwhelming. The chaos appears like it has no end and will never be put back right again.

            In those times we often suspect that God does not care. That suspicion that God does not care is a rotten factor in faith. It will corrode, ruin, rot away our ability to follow Christ in faith. It leads us down a road of blaming God for everything. Sometimes we blame God for the storms we make. I had a friend who loved to gorge on sweets every single day. When he was diagnosed as diabetic, he couldn’t believe God would let that happen to him. This was one of those less than pastoral moments for me. I blurted out to him, “What did you think would happen?” This is just the natural end result of your actions, not God’s divine manipulation.

            Faith is hard in the storm because crises lead to doubts, and doubts tell us that God does not care. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unbothered does not equate to lack of caring. I had a friend who slept through Hurricane Michael in 2019 when it came through at night. I was flabbergasted. How could someone sleep through a whole hurricane? But what he said was this. I am unbothered by it. I can’t control it, and I can’t change it. If something bad happens in this storm, I will work through it in the best way I can. If the storm does me in, I’m ready to see Jesus. Any way this goes, I’m unbothered by the outcome. I care, but I also have faith that all will be well in the end. If it’s not well, it’s not the end.

            For Mark’s church, who so desperately needed to hear this miracle, it’s not so much about what Jesus did as it is who he is. Faith is not an antibiotic that fixes everything in a few days. It’s an insurance plan that lets you know things will be taken care of when the time is right, and it’s needed. We tend to be overwhelmed by the trouble of the present time before us, but faith is something we live for eternity. The God we rely on and believe in knew us before we were born, leads and guides us in the present, and loves us throughout all eternity, and nothing can separate us from that eternal, unchanging love.

            Jesus knew the struggles the disciples had and how the storm would challenge their faith. After he rebukes the storm, he turns and challenges their unbelief, saying, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” A good friend was complaining about one of the ladies in her prayer group. She said that Mildred, the name has been changed to protect the innocent, used to pray for people then go on about her day and never check in. My friend said when she prayed, she would check in with them at least a couple times a day to see how they were. Mildred, however, just prayed and went on about her business. My friend got more and more worked up about how Mildred could never follow up or check back. Finally, I asked her a question. Does Mildred not check back because she is uncaring or is it because she’s unbothered? Perhaps she cares a great deal, but has the faith and trust to believe that God heard her prayer, and she doesn’t need to backtrack, hover, and follow up on every little thing God works on? Unbothered does not equate to uncaring.

            The message from Job and Mark’s gospel is quite clear. Faith is something we must continue to work on both when life is easy and when the storms and trials come our way. Jesus cleared up the storm in a matter of minutes for the disciples on the boat. Most scholars believe Job suffered for years before his deliverance. No matter how long the storm, the severity, or the endurance we must have, we can still have faith in the One who is more powerful than any storm of life. Deliverance might not come today, tomorrow, or in this lifetime, but faith carries us through, and God’s love remains eternal.

            Many years ago, I spent an hour and a half bouncing on an airplane between Atlanta and Knoxville like I was on the worst ride at Six Flags imaginable. The whole plane full of passengers was soaked in Ginger Ale, and covered in snacks. But we landed safely. And the guy next to me slept through the whole thing. He was unbothered by the storm the whole way through. When the storms of life hit us, when we are overwhelmed, and when faith feels crushed, remember that Jesus created peace in the middle of the storm, then he reminded the disciples that faith sees them through eternity, not just immediate trial. Thanks be to God.

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/1484855905477193

Tough Answers 4

Tough Answers: Who/What Question—I Sam. 15:34-16:13; Mark 4: 26-29

            Hetty Green was known as the “Witch of Wall Street” and has the distinction of being in the Guinness Book of Records for the most stingy person in history. She was a well-known name in financial circles of the late 1800s, early 1900s Gilded Age America. Hetty Green inherited a large amount of money, and kept it, and invested it herself becoming her own businesswoman in a time when women were not allowed into the inner circles of the New York Stock Exchange. But her skill and wisdom allowed her to amass a fortune of millions if not billions of dollars and allowed her to become the top lending institution in New York during financial downturns to the major investors and banks.

            She was, however, a stingy old woman. She wore one or two dresses until they wore out, sewed her own underpants, refused to have hot water, ate food cold to conserve cooking fuel, moved around from one low-income apartment to the next, and refused medical attention because doctors were too expensive. She allegedly beat her hernia down with a stick when it bulged rather than go and pay to have a surgery to remove it. When the US had major financial downturns, however, it was Hetty Green who bailed everybody out. She was the who that had the what to help everybody out when bad fortune struck…for a reasonable interest rate of course.

            In today’s Hebrew Lesson, we hear how King Saul, the first king of Israel, failed utterly and completely. God had given him a specific command, and Saul had done what he wanted instead. When Samuel confronts him, Saul further refuses to take responsibility for his action, blaming the people instead. The Lord speaks to Samuel and tells him to anoint a new king, for God has rejected Saul because of this disobedience. Now, in choosing someone for this high calling, one might think there are a few important traits: the king should be strong, skilled in battle, wise in all things, old enough to have that wisdom, well-educated in what he needs to know, a powerful person in all ways.

            Each of Jesse’s sons fit this stereotypical mold. Yet, God said no to each one, and advised Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” When David, the youngest of the sons, came in from the field, it was his heart that which the Lord found good. David was then anointed to be the next king.

            We live in a society that worships the physical appearance. We want people to look a certain way, be tall and strong, speak the way we like and want to hear, be shaped and formed body-wise in a way we find appealing, and by gosh, don’t ever age, for we most certainly worship a youthful appearance. And if any of that starts to become a problem, we bring out the ointments, oils, radical diets, and or a little nip/tuck to fix it. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a nice appearance. But society is fixated on the shallow things of life. When God considers a who and what—who is be called and for what purpose—God looks to the heart of the person.

            I think of the old and somewhat cruel joke of describing someone. Whey they are unattractive in some way, we hear the phrase, “They’ve got a good personality.” But the measure of a person, their value, and their worth in the eyes of God comes from the goodness of their heart, and the way in which they engage in a relationship to God and to those around them. Out of our insecurities, we will often make jokes about our appearance or repeat old tropes we learned growing up to diffuse our own struggles with society’s unkindness about appearance versus actions. But God looks to the heart.

            Mark tells us that not only does God look to the heart of the person, but God also looks to what will be built by that person in the future. Sometimes we come under the notion that God calls us to do things immediately, right this minute. I had a friend who after the first date, every date, was planning the wedding for the guy she went out with. We function in shallowness and the need for instant gratification. But Jesus talks about the longevity of planting seeds today. When the farmer scatters seeds, he doesn’t get a full harvest the next day. It takes weeks of watering, weeding, nurturing, and so on to get the crops to grow.

            I remember growing up that my grandfather had a small farm with a garden of vegetables. I would go up with him every Saturday morning and help with help being a very relative word. I remember him pulling weeds out of the squash and beans. I remember him watering the corn and tomatoes. And I remember him killing what felt like thousands of little beetle-looking “potato bugs” that would eat the plant part of the potato. It was hard work. It took time. But it also produced a very rewarding harvest after all that time.

            Jesus makes that same connection to the kingdom of God. Building and growing a church in the modern age is hard, and it has become incredibly hard post-Covid. A recent study said a majority of Millenials aged 28-40 would rather go to a boozy brunch than an 11:00 AM Sunday service. It’s a two-fold problem. The church has focused on the cosmetics and not the heart and soul of the message, and society wants instant gratification. Faith is a long-term discipline, and that’s hard in a Snapchat society.

            We are called today to build for tomorrow. We tend to shy away from being the ones who lead, who lean into that calling, and who are ready to build. Instead of “Here I am, Lord, is it I, Lord?” we sing “Here’s my friend, Lord, please take him, Lord.” Part of the trouble is we think in too broad of terms. We’re not likely to be called to perform miracles, face lions in the arena, travel thousands of miles like Paul, or stare down the Roman executioner. Instead, God calls us to plant seeds. The heartfelt, “God loves you,” today may be a turning point in someone’s life tomorrow or next week.

            But the part we can’t escape is being called. When Samuel came to anoint Jesse’s son, he found grand, powerful, strong men. David was an afterthought to Jesse. He didn’t even see a need to send for his son from the fields to come and dine at the house with the prophet. Yet God looked to his heart and knew David was the one. In the same way, we cannot escape God’s calling because God has looked at our hearts and known that we were the one needed. The seeds of faith we plant today will be harvested by younger generations down the road. But you have to be willing to go out and plant the seeds of faith in the first place. When the grain is ready, Jesus says, the harvest will come for the farmer.

            Hetty Green may have been a miser, stingy and unwilling to spend on any luxury. And frankly, she is probably the least likely person to be a major financial powerhouse in 1900 America. But it was her wisdom, her fortune, and her willingness to be a powerhouse of lending that kept banks and financiers afloat in 1875 and 1905 when the stock markets crashed. Her wisdom, savings plan, and investment strategy allowed her to be the exact person they needed to help keep things from a real financial disaster. She was unlikely, but the best person for the job. She also planted seeds of financial stability for tomorrow and years down the road which paid off long after she was gone.

            We cannot escape God’s calling, for God has given us skills, wisdom, and abilities to do great things for the kingdom of God, whether you admit it or not. We also must realize the importance of planting seeds for tomorrow and not today. The work we do in faith is for our children, grandchildren, and future generations down the years. But it starts with us now and our willingness to trust God and obey the calling God has given us.

 Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/3702835473180438  

Tough Answers 3

Tough Answers—The Fighting Question: I Sam. 8:4-9, 19-20; Mark 3: 20-35

            Years ago, while I was interning in Houston County, I observed the trial of a man who got sick of code enforcement and decided one day to shoot the code enforcement officer who was ticketing him for blighted property. The officer survived, and the shooter was charged with an assault. That man, the shooter, decided to represent himself at trial. The Assistant District Attorney prosecuting the case spent night and day preparing, considering every avenue, filing all the necessary motions. He was terrified of losing this high-profile case to a non-attorney, and he was ready for a fight. After all of this tremendous preparation and angst, the shooter stood up to question the code enforcement officer, in legal terms, to cross examine this witness. His first question was, “Were you able to recognize me when I shot you?” I leaned over to my fellow intern and said, “I don’t think that ADA needs to worry about fighting so hard.”

            The lesson there is two-fold. In a post-Covid, hyper-political, news-saturated society, the world has gone nuts, and we’ve all decided that it’s our calling to fight about everything, constantly. We hear in the old hymn, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, O what a foretaste of glory divine.” These days we have a foretaste of something, but it sure isn’t glory divine. Our world is antagonistic, difficult, riddled with angst, and lacking in prayer. We seem to have chosen these things over peace, hope, grace, and gentleness. We’ve sacrificed fruits of the Spirit, Spiritual gifts, and following the Prince of Peace for the latest, greatest ways of verbal combat on every social media platform available.

In a world where we claim to follow the One who willingly let himself be sacrificed on the cross for people who spat on him, we’ve instead chosen meanness over offering the other cheek. And the two questions we have to ask ourselves are: Why? And what has it gotten us? My guess is we don’t know why, and mostly it’s gotten us heartburn and high blood pressure.

But truly it wasn’t much different in Jesus’s day. We read in the Gospel lesson about the fighting Jesus endured. Tired, starving, and weary, Jesus enters a house where even then he cannot escape the crowds. As the youth would say, he’s tired and hangry. He couldn’t find a moment alone. The description provided in Mark makes it seem as if Jesus is delirious from the hunger and exhaustion. And instead of bringing him food, water, and getting him to a restful place, the teachers of religious law try to claim he’s possessed by Satan. Jesus turns this claim on its head. Satan cannot cast out Satan, and why would that ever happen? Jesus logically, not deliriously, tells them it’s proof his power is from God.

But then we get one of the problematic sayings from Jesus. They come and tell him that his mother and brothers are there and want to talk to him. Outside. Mark’s wording makes this feel like an intervention. They’ve come to whisk Jesus away from this absolute insanity. But Jesus says, “Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

The religious legal teachers came ready for a fight. They saw a vulnerable moment and wanted to come and finally trounce Jesus in a debate. They thought at this moment they could take advantage of this vulnerability, exploit Jesus’s weakness to ruin him. And still he won. Exhausted and all. The only thing Jesus wanted was for them to follow God’s will. That’s all he asked in that moment, and they couldn’t even agree on that basic idea. I remember a board meeting I attended, and I won’t say where. Two or three people were arguing strongly back and forth, getting loud, and making these heated points on the motion before the board. Finally, the chair had enough, and she banged the gavel loudly saying, “Do you all hear yourselves? You AGREE ON THE POINT! Why are you arguing!!?? What’s the matter?” One of the two in the fight said, “Oh, I’m sorry, looks like I forgot to turn my hearing aid up. I didn’t hear what they said. Never mind.”

We have too many people who want to be the teachers of religious law in our modern era. We have our hearing abilities turned down, our irritability turned up, and society is ready for a fight on literally everything. And into that churning pot of angst and anger we add the bitter herb of politics. In the Prophet Samuel’s day, there was no real king or singular leader over Israel. The prophets had listened to God and provided God’s word to the people of Israel. Essentially, God was their king. But they were tired of that… of listening to God. They wanted a king. Everyone else had a king, and now they wanted a king.

Even as Samuel spent ten verses (which were edited out of today’s reading) convincing the people how horrible a king would be, they still refused to listen and demanded a king to rule them. Listen to what God said, “’Do everything they say to you,’ the Lord replied, ‘for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt, they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they’re giving you the same treatment.’” The people wanted a political answer to a spiritual problem, and that only creates two problems.

If we want to be brothers and sisters of Jesus, then we must do God’s will and follow Jesus. That means accepting the places where Jesus taught hard lessons to people on both sides of the American political landscape. In a world where we are taught that power is the golden ticket, might makes right, vengeance is a gleeful endeavor, and we should win at all costs, we have to stop, step back, and re-read the story of a Savior. Jesus lived his life wandering around teaching about peace and love. He healed when people needed him. He forgave when eyes were opened to his grace. He spoke words of calling and comfort to those who were hurting. He told Peter, who was ready to fight, to put his sword down for those who live by the sword die by the sword.

And ultimately, he went to the cross, was sacrificed and died in agony. And though he rose again, those scars on his body remained. Jesus didn’t go to that cross because it was expected. He didn’t go because the law required. He certainly didn’t go because we had earned or been nice enough to deserve it. He went because he loved us so much that he was willing to sacrifice for that love. I can’t imagine any religious leader or Pharisee in Jesus’s day sacrificing out love for the people they served in faith. And, frankly, I can’t picture many of today’s Christians and Christian leaders doing the same either.

What the world needs today is more people who are sacrificial, gentle, loving, and silent. The world needs more people who will listen with Jesus’s ears and Jesus’s heart than with ears and tongue ready to offer a sharpened response. Every opportunity Jesus was given to throw stones at someone, who in all likelihood deserved it, he instead taught and practiced mercy and grace.

The Israelite people anointed the king they so desperately wanted. It was King Saul who went on to live out a terrible reign with a horrific ending. But we, as God’s people, have a different option. In a world filled with bitterness, fighting, angst, and downright meanness, we can choose Jesus. As Charlotte Elliot’s famous hymn says, “Just as I am, though tossed about, with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God I come. I come.”

We live in a society that every single day wakes up and gets ready to fight over literally everything. And I have to ask, “Aren’t we tired of it yet?” The Jesus we follow offered grace, mercy, love, and most importantly for this sermon, peace. And if we find ourselves unwilling to live a life that is sacrificial in giving, loving everyone with open arms, forgiving, gentle, humble, peace-seeking, and ready to offer grace to every single person we encounter, just like Jesus, I have but one question. Who are we really following?

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/994644678395990

Tough Answers 2

Tough Answers—The Sabbath Question: Deut. 5:12-15; Matt.2:23-3:6

            There’s an old saying—“No good deed goes unpunished.” Our Gospel lesson today takes this quite literally. A friend of mine prepared a meal for her and her husband’s extended family. They were all invited that Sunday afternoon to a delicious pot roast. It was the first time her family had been invited to her home because they were difficult at times. Her husband’s family ate heartily and enjoyed her wonderful cooking. I can attest that she’s a good cook. Her own family scowled and secretly ordered Papa John’s pizza behind her back because they didn’t like “that kind” of food…meaning good.

            Many of us are familiar with the idea of taking a Sabbath. In our common understanding, it’s a set, scheduled time of rest, recharge, and a time to be holy with God—to refresh that relationship. We talk about Sabbath in terms of time; for example, I take 5:00 PM Friday to Noon-ish Saturday for Sabbath. I don’t answer calls, work on things, or make myself busy. I rest, recharge, and take a time of faith renewal in some way. But, I want to stretch that idea of Sabbath for us today beyond just time. You should be someone’s Sabbath—be the space, the presence, and the person who helps them deepen their faith and refresh their relationship with God.

            In the Gospel today we read where Jesus violated the human-made Sabbath rules of his day to be a literal Sabbath to those in need. First the religious leaders criticize Jesus’s disciples for picking grain heads off the grain to eat on the Sabbath. Their rules were such that it was expected you would starve instead of doing one iota of work to get food. Next, they criticized Jesus for healing someone suffering on the Sabbath. Their rules were such that it was better for you to let others or yourself suffer miserably than do any work at all to be healed. That is no Sabbath at all. It is fake human rule pretending to be an actual holy command from God, but their rules caused actual pain and suffering at a time that was designed to be refreshing and renewing of one’s relationship to God. That’s not respect. That’s not faith. That’s awful, and I daresay sinful.

            I have to confess that this passage irks me so much. The pharisees choose suffering over love, over help, over kindness. They chose to be hard-hearted because it preserved their power and control over the people. Jesus threw that in their faces. The Gospel points out that they had hard hearts to the suffering of those around them. Instead of celebrating that Jesus gave life, healing, and hope back to this man with a deformity, Jesus’s compassion help pushed them to plot to kill him. The worst part of it is that they had a choice, and they chose violence and meanness.

            In spiritual direction, they talk a lot about things that can be fixed and things that cannot. My own director said that in any struggle you have 5 things at play: the circumstance, your thoughts, your feelings, your actions, and the result. Of all five of those things, the only one you CANNOT control is the circumstance. Life will hand you some difficult circumstances, and you may go through trying times. But what you can control are the rest of those five. You can control how you think about a circumstance and how you feel. You can analyze why you feel so angry and upset, whether that’s the right feeling or not, and whether you’re looking at it from a good perspective, a Christ-like perspective.

            You can control how you respond—your action. If someone offends, you can choose the action of forgiveness, of preserving your own sense of love and life, your own personal peace. And if you manage and control your thoughts, feelings, and actions in a healthy and faithful way, you can have a result that is to your benefit even if the circumstance is horrible. Focus on what you can change—focus on creating the result of Sabbath and peace in circumstances that may be challenging or difficult.

            The Pharisees may not have liked that Jesus challenged them. He upended their notions of Sabbath, of what was proper, the good order and decency of things, and he instead focused on what was beautiful in life…being a person in whom people could rest, hope, and love. It’s the place where people experienced the presence of God in the form of this person Jesus. When they touched the hem of his garment they found divine healing, but they also simply touched a robe and tunic. When they listened to his teaching, they heard the voice of God, but they saw a humble man who would soon be killed by the angry religious leaders. Jesus broke the legalized rules of Sabbath to be a living Sabbath to those in need.

            We need more people in this world whose lives and presence are like that of Jesus. The Sabbath was important because when the Hebrew people were in Egypt, they were worked all day as slaves with no hope, no comfort, no real life, only oppression and suffering. And in Jesus’s day it was no different. They may not have been in Egypt, but they were enslaved to their rules, their control, their power, and the oppressive theocracy they had built in Judea under the permission of the Roman Empire, whose oppression ran even deeper. In Jesus’s day, there was a legalized time of no work, but there was no real Sabbath.

            In many ways, we find ourselves in the same kind of world. We are oppressed by a constant political climate, worry, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and so many more bad circumstances. We look for human answers. If we elect this person or that person, it will help. If we follow this policy or that policy, things will be fine. If we do this diplomacy, or that military answer, tensions will cool. But unfortunately, you cannot find a Sabbath peace and rest in a human answer to life’s problems. You must look to the holy. Jesus’s loving, gentle presence quietly rebuked the politics and power of the Pharisees and offered a presence of love and healing to the man whose hand was deformed and indeed everyone he met.

            Jesus challenged them even before he healed the man. Don’t miss the power of his words. He’s basically saying, that if their Sabbath rules don’t permit good works, then they have made the Sabbath a day where only evil is legally allowed to work in the world because it was illegal to do something good for another. In a very real way, they had made rules that empowered evil deeds on the Sabbath because law-abiding, good people were barred from doing anything at all. And the worst part is their hearts were too hardened to care. The result was that Jesus called out their hypocrisy, healed the man of his deformity, and did what was good, right, and holy on the Sabbath. In return, the religious leaders decided to kill Jesus.

            Growing up in church, my grandfather sometimes led singing. He had a pretty good tenor voice, and knew the old, old hymns very well. One of his favorites was a hymn called “Let My Life Be a Light.” You won’t really find it in any hymnal except the old, shaped note hymnals from pre-1950. Part of the second verse says, “Guide my footsteps aright through the dark, stormy night, give me peace, give me joy, give me love. Let my life be a light shining out through the night, may I help struggling ones to the fold; spreading cheer everywhere to the sad and the lone, let my life be a light to some soul.” It’s really the prayer we need, isn’t it?

            Disappointments and difficult circumstances can often be a part of life. My friend learned this from her tactless and crass family coming to dinner only to ruin it. We don’t always have control of the circumstance, but we can always control how it affects us and how we respond. And we can choose a place of Sabbath and rest in our lives. Yes, Sabbath is scheduling out a time for personal rest and refreshing of faith, but it is also a lived practice. Whatever you do in life, don’t be the Pharisee people encounter. Be the Sabbath that shows the love of Christ and practices peace and comfort in a world that so desperately needs it.

             Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/344874001686362