Today ends our Christian Year. It is Christ the King Sunday. It is a Sunday where we recognize that Christ is above all and has all authority. The gospel lesson today is the Parable of the Nations or the Parable of the Sheep and Goats. Whether you like it or not. Christ is judging. We are not judged by our liking nor by our standards. We are judged by the standards of Jesus. 

 

 

God does not judge as we would judge. Our passage in Ezekiel is also a story of judgment. We are first told of God’s part. God seeks us. God binds up our broken bones so we are healed. God rescues us. God feeds us. God looks after his sheep. Then Ezekiel gives us this important line – I will judge the fat and the strong. I will feed them justice. 

 

This line is troubling. Why are the fat and the strong judged? We need to picture a herd of animals. Those who are fat have taken more than they needed. They did not share when they could have. The strong should be looked at in the same way. The strong have bullied the weak. The strong have taken more than they need and they have not been concerned about the weak. They want to keep the weak weak. They have not concern but the concern for themselves. Is there any specifics mentioned in this passage. I don’t want to be the fat and the strong if God is going to judge them. If we go back to the first part of this chapter, we will get some answers.

 

v. 3b – You do not feed the sheep.

v. 4 – You have not strengthened the weak.

v. 4b – You have not healed the sick. 

v. 4c – You have not sought out the lost.

 

In fact, they are criticized in v. 3 for living off of the fat or living a life of ease and taking advantage of the wool produced by the sheep yet not caring for them one bit. Doesn’t this sound like Matthew 25 to you? In that parable, Jesus at the judgment separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep are on the right and the goats are on the left. Those on the right are told to enter the kingdom of God. Don’t miss this point, sheep follow the shepherd. Goats do their own thing. If you ignore the shepherd and do you own thing, then you will be judged not by your standards but by Gods.   You will be like a goat. You have already received your reward here on earth. Go to “Eternal Punishment” (Mat. 25:46).

 

 

God says we will be judged by justice. We will be judged as we have judged others. Those who want to live like a goat with no regard for the other, will be judged as such. Ezekiel though takes it one step further, he also says he will judge between sheep and sheep. There are sheep that are picked out as having no regard for the other sheep. They get a drink of water for themselves and then dirty up the water for the rest of the flock not thinking of them at all.  

 

Ezekiel criticizes the preachers, prophets, and kings saying they have only been in it for themselves. They have been poor leaders. They have not taught the flock how to bind up the weak, to care for the sick, to help in healing the broken, and to seek out the lost. Ezekiel has God saying I am going to take care of that. I will be the Great Shepherd. The sheep can follow me. Jesus clearly identified himself as the Great Shepherd. We are to follow Jesus. 

 

 

We have only one that we follow it is Jesus Christ. Jesus is clear in his teaching in Matthew 25. If you do not care for the down and out, how can you be a follower of Christ? In Ezekiel 34, we have listed what God is going to do with his sheep:

 

v. 14 – I will feed them.

v. 16 – I will seek out the lost.

v. 16 – I will bind up the injured.

v. 16 – I will strengthen the weak.

 

God is going to do what we seem to not be able to do. Let’s take these one by one that God is going to do and as followers of Christ, we must do also. 

 

1.        Feed the Sheep. John at the very end of his Gospel is trying to give us some crucial last teachings. We find that Simon Peter who denied Jesus 3 times is sitting around the campfire with Jesus. Three times he asks Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Jesus responded those three times with these responses: “feed my lambs (the little ones),” “tend my sheep” (the church), “feed my sheep.” There can be no doubt that we are to take care of the physical and spiritual needs of the local church. But, all people were created by God and also should be included in that number. Specifically Jesus and the prophets brought out that the orphans, the widows, and the resident aliens (immigrants) were to be included. We will be judged by how we judged and behaved to them. 

 

 

2.        Seeking the Lost. Jesus said I didn’t come for the righteous. I come to seek and to save the lost. Do we have a zeal for evangelism? Do we believe we have “good news” meaning it is worth sharing? We need to remember that Jesus first sent out the 12 to be witnesses and then the 70. After Jesus’ death, the 12 disciples were dispersed around the known world at the time to be witnesses for Jesus. 

 

 

Is our desire to witness for Christ?

 

3.       Bind up the injured. Are we willing to take a risk?

 

 

Are we willing to risk for Jesus?

 

4.        Strengthen the weak. Strengthening the weak is a commitment. It’s not a one time shot and I am done. It is a lifetime of working for the Kingdom of God. Strengthening the weak is to make relationships. It is more than throwing money at a good cause. It is getting involved. 

 

Jesus is the King of all Kings. Jesus is giving all authority. Jesus will judge and he will judge us justly. Ezekiel says and they “shall know that I am their God” and they are the “sheep of my pasture.”

Amen. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Philip Adams from an internet blog titled, The Australian, says part of mandatory religious education class was to sing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” No matter how you look at that song – it has a militant ring to it. Yet, Jesus teaches a militant type of peace not war. We are living in a time when a more militant language is creeping into politics. Language shapes us as people. The recent homegrown terrorist in Norway that massacred so many people did under the guise of Christian. What language shaped him? So today when we talk about Christ killers our main emphasis will be on anything we do, say, or teach that is against the teaching of Jesus. 

 

Sadly to say though, that is not the only way the word has been used. In fact, people of Jewish descent have suffered horribly for sins of a past generation that goes back thousands of years to the time of Christ. Remember last week’s scripture in Ezekiel, you shall not suffer for the sins of your parents. As Christians, we need to remember that passage. I share this story with you by Michael Evans:

It would seem that we have a lot to learn as a people who are called Christ followers. Today we go to a passage in the Bible that has been used to call Jews Christ killers. Jesus makes a surprising prediction in this parable. The leaders of the Jews would become Christ killers. It somewhat startles us to even say such a phrase. We need to clearly say this passage has been misused. Again in this lesson for today, Christ killer means anything that is against the teaching and ways of Christ. We have to come to terms with the fact that it is easier to come to terms with a passage In the Bible if we can say that applies to someone else and not me. So when I use the term Christ killers today, I am saying remember that God has given us all that we need to fulfill his desire to see fruits for the kingdom of God to a new people. That new people are those who follow Christ so now the passage must be reread and we have to ask ourselves could we fall into the same trap as the leaders of the Jews. Could we become Christ killers?

 

To get an answer to that question, I believe we need to first ask ourselves what was God’s expectations for the people of Israel and what is God’s expectations of us? 

 

God put everything into place. The vineyard was planted. All of the equipment needed to make grace juice was there. Even a watch tower was given so they could watch out for enemies. What was God expecting? Fruit of the vine. God has given all that is needed for salvation – not of works less anyone should boast. God expects our life to demonstrate the results of the one we say we follow. If we truly love God and neighbor, it will show. 

 

The problem was the leaders of the Jews would not relinquish unto God what was rightfully God’s. It was old fashioned greed. Sometimes, we get like that – we feel like we truly own our possessions when in reality we are all travelers just passing through. As the preacher says, you can’t take it with you – is a reminder to us to not put too much importance on the here and now, but many a friendship has been ruined over the almighty dollar. The Jewish leaders would not let go of their authority. The power they had – it was a god to them. Their interpretation of God’s word became more important than God’s word given through Jesus Christ. They were on a power trip. Power brought them respect. Power brought them wealth. Power brought them loopholes – the ability to circumvent God’s law. The leaders of the Jews were interested in themselves. They weren’t really interested in serving God and serving our neighbor. It was all about them. When it is all about you, there is no room for a savior in your life. When it is all about you, there is no sharing of God’s resources. 

 

When it is all about you and God comes calling to us in the 21^st century, we are apt to do the same as the leaders of the Jews, we too can become Christ killers. We kill Christ if our works do not demonstrate the fruits of the spirit – love, joy, and peace. We kill Christ when we think too highly of ourselves and forget the needs of others. We kill Christ when we think acting justly in this world is too hard, too costly, and not worth the effort. We kill Christ when we seek to keep for ourselves what is rightly Gods. 

 

Jesus would have been familiar with Isaiah chapter 5. The title given to this chapter in my Bible is the “Unfruitful Vineyard.” I give you a few selections. You who gather wealth until there is “room for no one but you” will be judged. There are many warnings given in this passage. I life a few more:

 

Those who do not regard the deeds of the Lord. 

Those who have rejected the instruction of the Lord.

Those who are wise in their own eyes. 

Those who take a bribe.

Those who deprive the innocent of their rights.

 

All of these will be judged by God. He says their big fancy house will become desolate and Sheol (or death/punishment) will become enlarged. God expected justice (vs. 7) and his honored by justice (vs. 16) and he himself is holy by righteousness (vs. 16). I guess the bottom line was this: people were living just as if God did not exist. Even the people of God were robbing of God what was rightly God’s  – no one was paying attention to how they lived this life. It was all about them.  That is not who God has called us to be.

 

If we say we are God’s people then we “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before God.” If we haven’t given our life over unto God or recognized Jesus as Lord and Savior, we need to recognize that these are Jesus’ words to us – those miserable wretches will be put to death (vs. 41). Matthew doesn’t pull punches. Yes, Matthew teaches “hell fire and brimstone.” You are either living for God or you are against God. If you are against God, then you fit into the category of “Christ Killer.” Jesus said, “you will be broken into pieces and crushed (vs. 44). 

 

Jesus doesn’t want to judge us, but sometimes we give him no choice. God wants to demonstrate his mercy and lovingkindness. We need to accept his grace and be lovers of Christ. Today, be sure of your salvation. Today, be sure you are living for Christ. 

 

I share with you this story. A young lady named Tanya Sparks live in a house where no one attended church. Her parents were having marital difficulties and turned to the church. They were obviously touched by God because they were changed overnight. Tanya attended church some and thought she was saved because she was a good person. She even married a preacher. Their marriage was a difficult one and she fought over the ministry. She became the piano player thinking that good work would get her into heaven. She kept doing things trying to prove she was good enough, but one day she gave all she had and she was over to Jesus and she was truly saved. Her testimony is she became a changed person. She wanted to serve God because God has saved her. She had played Christian for all of those years then she became one – a Christ follower. 

 

Disciple of Christ or Christ killer. Amen. 

 

For anyone who was alive on September 11, 2001 and can remember the events of that day, it is a day we will not forget. Many of you when asked, can remember in detail the events of that day. I was working for Farm Bureau and travelling through Louisburg near 9am. I was trying to make a call on my cell phone and could not get anything to work. I stopped on the side of the road and tried and tried to make a call and then just gave up. When I arrived at my destination the Farm Bureau field representative came out to meet me and asked me had I heard? Heard what I asked? Had I heard that a fully loaded jet had flown into the twin towers in New York City. As the events of the day unfolded, we watched on TV as the towers fell. There had been 4 jets hijacked. Two went into the twin towers. One flew into the pentagon, and one crashed in Pennsylvania as the passengers stormed the jet and kept it from going to we assume the White House. On this 10^th anniversary, we remember a great tragedy, much loss of life, the heroic rescuers, and a resolve by the nation that we are stronger than this incident. Let there be no doubt this is a national tragedy. I was amazed that in Warrenton – the small town that I was in on that day, how many people were either just in New York or were supposed to been there on that day eating in the restaurant on the top of the twin towers but cancelled, or even greater still – the people who were there on that day. The world became small on that day. It was like those in New York City were my neighbors and friends. I don’t think it is these types of big national events that define us. It is our reaction and actions that we take. Today as we grieve as a nation for the loss of life and the tragedy, we also honor those who valiantly sought to save lives on that day. What have we learned? How has this event changed us? 

 

First, let’s name it. To attack a nation with the sole purpose to inflict mass causalities and to make it a goal to inflict as much national pain as possible, is a sin. There is no question here. Our national conscience can easily turn to anger. It is like in the days after 9/11 that we were being stung by bees and had no idea where they are coming from. We just started swatting hoping to smack some terrorists in the process. This led us to war with Iraq and Afghanistan. Just as when you are stung by a bee, you want it to stop, we as a nation wanted this type of terrorism to stop. History will judge us as a nation as having some success and failures in this type of response. We have been successful in stopping this type of terror in our lives for now. Yet, we have also failed to get out of those wars that we haven’t paid for yet and these wars are now a drain on our economy. 

 

What have we learned as a nation? I would say we have learned that there are people who hate our beloved country and would love nothing more than to see it fail. We have learned that war is not the end all and will not ultimately be our solution to world peace. We have learned that we need to understand other people better and specifically Muslims. 

 

How has this event changed us? We are probably a little more conscious of terror in the world. Hopefully, we are more safety minded. I think we have greater respect for the people in our nation that put their life on the line for our sake. But, I don’t think we are done with this event. This event will continue to shape us as a nation. The question is how will it shape us?

 

St. Augustine wrote, “God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to allow no evil to exist.” According to the contemporary Frederick Buechner, “sin itself can be a means of grace.” You might ask what are they saying? Are they saying good can come out of bad? Yes, that is what they are saying. Genesis 50:20 has Joseph saying these words to his brothers who sold him into slavery, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.” God allowed good to come out of bad. So if we say we are God’s people, and let there be no doubt we have been inflicted with bad on 9/11, how can it for us be good? What can we learn?

 

We go to the lectionary text for today. In that text, Peter thinking surely 7 times is enough to forgive someone, but Jesus told him try for 77 times. What I had missed in my other readings of this text is the phrase “if another member of the church sins against me.” Peter didn’t bring up the people we would really struggle to forgive like a terrorist or mass murderer. He brought up the Christian community. How many times do I have to forgive my brother or sister in Christ or my real brother or sister, or my husband or my wife or my son or my daughter. How many times? Peter had yet to learn this key Christian principle – Christian ethics is defined by “forgiveness.” Terrorist by definition are people that cannot forgive – all they want is vengeance. 

 

Matthew 7:2 says, “for with the judgment you make, you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” We receive what we give. This relates to forgiveness. The Lord’s prayer in Matthew 7:12 says, “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Jesus is saying we should expect to get what we have given. 

 

Jesus does not tell us that we can’t stand up for our God given human rights. In fact in Matthew 7:39, he gives us some words of advice – “do not resist the evil doer, but if anyone strikes you on the right check, turn the other also.” This verse at first seems like a complete pacifist position but when we study the text we realize that in Jesus’ time you were slapped with the back of your hand as a way to insult you. So if a right handed person struck the right check of a person, it would be impossible to strike the left cheek with the same hand. If you would use the left hand, it would be awkward at best. Jesus was saying standup to those who abuse you but not with violence. Remember our Christian ethic – you will receive what you give. There were those in Jesus’ day that wanted to give the Romans violence. They finally won out and in 70AD that received what they gave – violence. Many were killed. Jerusalem was destroyed. 

 

 

 Peter wanted to show a little bit of forgiveness so that he appeared godly, but his heart wasn’t there. He didn’t want to forgive and in fact he wanted to know at what point could he stop forgiving? Just in case, 70 or 77 times doesn’t get the point across, Jesus told a story. In this story, we find someone who had been forgiven such a large debt that it is even beyond our comprehension. There is no way this debt could have been paid off. It is only by the mercy of God and God’s grace that there is forgiveness, but there is. The King is settling accounts and demonstrates grace to this sinner. This sinner had no sooner gotten out of the presence of the judge and the court that he ran into someone who owed him money. It was a debt that could be paid. Maybe that is why it made it difficult to forgive them. If they really wanted to, they could pay that debt or make the offense right. This must have been what made the servant who had been shown nothing but grace blow his cool. If you can make it right, then you should. There would be no forgiveness here. He probably rationalized his situation. His situation was different. He couldn’t pay so grace was appropriate, but if someone can make it right and they just don’t do it – there can be no forgiveness he must have thought. He was so angry that he immediately took this man to court. The gavel had hardly rested from the grace he had been shown when he is in court asking the judge to show no mercy. 

 

The King wasn’t pleased. To him it didn’t matter whether or not you could pay the bill – forgiveness and grace must be a way of life. In fact, I would say the message in this passage is just the opposite of what we would normally think. It would go like this – Because God has forgiven you of your sins, wrongs, dumb moves, errors, and selfish thinking, he expects you to do the same. Even when people can make it right if they would choose to do so. This is extreme forgiveness – that is to forgive someone even if they could make it right. And if that is not enough, to get corrected to forgive someone 77 times and then be told a story where you forgive someone even if they could make it right, we are now left with the conclusion.

 

Jesus saw forgiveness so crucial to what it means to live for God that if you can’t forgive, then your goose is cooked. You are up a stream without a paddle. You are up to your neck in alligators. Do you get the picture? 

 

Let’s go back to our story, because the servant could not forgive a little thing, he wasn’t forgiven the debt that it was literally impossible for him to pay. The story ends with saying that the unforgiving servant would be tortured until he could pay the debt back – did you hear that? He can’t pay the debt back – that is the whole point of the story. If we can’t forgive with our heart, then we are in the same predicament. To put it plainly, to not forgive is to ask to go to hell. 

 

This is such a radical idea. Well God is expecting us to live here on earth like we are already in heaven. And, we are not. Sin is still in the world. Great tragedies will still happen. Cruel events will still happen in our country. And God wants us to forgive? How can we forgive when someone has hurt us so bad? It is strange that this text is part of the lectionary for 9/11. Maybe God wants us to see that forgiveness assures our future not vengeance. 

 

Step 1 – Forgive yourself

God forgives us but we still have a hard time granting forgiveness to ourselves. There are times in life when decisions have such a great impact on the remainder of our life that we hold ourselves hostage – if only we had done that – whatever that might be. That is allowing the past to control us. God wants us to be controlled by our future. As we look upon our future destiny, what do we need to do today to put us on that track. 

 

When we reflect on 9/11, we should not forget, but we also should not allow vengeance to control our destiny. While I always say if you do the crime, you do the time, there comes a point when we just have to “let it go.” I heard on the news this week where a woman’s fiancée was just identified by DNA from the 9/11 attack. She goes up to New York every year. This year she said she will go with some closure. In all of our lives, we need to let it go. If we refuse to forgive, then anger will eat us alive. Let it go. 

9/11 is hard. The people that carried out that act of terrorism died in the crash. We want them back alive so we can carry out justice. It doesn’t seem fair that they died. How can we carry out justice? Maybe a little forgiveness is due. We wanted vengeance. What does God want?

 

Step 2 – Forgive those near and dear to you.

The hardest people to forgive are the people that are close to you. You know them. You know if they would just do what they need to do, it would be all right. Often, we want to place our own dissatisfaction on others. It is their fault I am miserable.  God asks us to live in the present. Nothing will impact your tomorrow more profoundly than what you do today. We need to man and woman up. Isn’t it obvious that it is the smaller things that really get under our skin. We are just waiting for the other person to make the move. God says give forgiveness and let it go. Quit waiting and do something yourself. Forgive. 

 

Step 3 – Change our Attitude

We need to change our attitude to Lord help me to find a way to forgive rather than Lord my anger burns hot and I want revenge. 

 

In Jesus’ time the Romans controlled people by brute force. Any time there was an uprising, the people were crushed, beaten, and killed. Jesus didn’t tell the Jews to just lay back and be beaten; instead, he told them to stand up but not with violence. Make the offenders (the Romans) look foolish. When Jesus said if a soldier asks you to carry their pack for a mile – go ahead and carry it for two. Why? After a mile, you were doing their work for them. It was then an insult to the soldier to not carry his own pack. Jesus changed the world with kindness. Jesus said put coals of fire over your enemies head by loving them. It would seem that we still have a lot to learn. 

 

Often we want to change the world like the Romans – with brute force, but I don’t think that was Jesus’ way. Jesus seemed to find ways where his extreme love, mercy, and forgiveness could change the world. The Romans weren’t conquered by force. They were conquered by Jesus’ movement of peace and love. Maybe there is something we could learn from Jesus as we reflect on our national tragedy of 9/11. 

 

We need to be more like Jesus. 

 

Let’s start by forgiving, extending grace and mercy to those perhaps undeserving, and determined to live today with our future in mind. 

 

Amen.  

Sermon – Keeping Faithful to the End

I Kings 19:9-18

Homecoming; Pentecost 8A

Jim Whittaker

 

Elijah what a man of God. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is with Elijah when he challenged the prophets of Baal. Elijah gave the people a challenge. Let’s find out who is really God. Yahweh or Baal. He said let the prophets of Baal slay an ox and make an altar then pray unto your God that he would light the fire under the altar. Then Elijah said I will do the same. Whoever gets their altar lit, they worship the true God. Everyone thought this was a great idea. So high on Mt. Carmel where you can see the plains of Meggido or Armageddon, they began chanting. The prophets of Baal went into a frenzy. They cut themselves until the blood rushed out. They did this all morning. Now Elijah is a real competitor. He shouts at the prophets of Baal. Perhaps your god is in the bathroom and cannot help you right now (that is saying it nicely). Elijah around noon then starts fixing his altar. He digs a trench around the altar and instructs servants to pour water over the sacrifice. He keeps shouting “more water!” He kept on until water was flowing out of the trench around the sacrifice. Everything was soaked. Then he prayed unto God and God burned the altar, the sacrifice, and evaporated all of the water. Elijah is a praying man. I want him praying for me. 

 

Now Elijah had a reputation for causing the political leaders and socialites trouble for he called them out for their lifestyle. King Ahab of the northern Kingdom of Israel even had a nickname for him – “troubler of Israel.” After this incredible demonstration of faith, Elijah goes up to the very top of the mountain and starts praying for rain. Israel was in a severe drought, and the reason was their unfaithfulness to God. Elijah prayed and asked the servant to look to see if he saw any rain clouds. The answer kept being no, but on the 7^th time he saw a tiny rain cloud. He told the servant to go back and tell King Ahab to get back to the palace because it was going to rain today. King Ahab took off in his chariot. Elijah decided to take a short cut and see if he could outrun King Ahab. The bible is clear with a super natural strength he ran and he beat King Ahab back to the palace. When King Ahab got back, he went and told Queen Jezebel all that had happened. She was a worshipper of Baal. She did not worship God.   She was incensed. She wasn’t satisfied with killing Elijah. She also wanted to intimidate him so she sent word to him that as soon as she found him, he was dead. Elijah with all of the power of God that he has seen on this day – the altar (and answer to prayer), the rain (and answer to prayer), and the super speed. It all disappeared when Queen Jezebel said you are as good as dead. He ran, and ran. He left his servant and then ran some more. He ran out of Israel. He ran through Judah all the way back to Mt. Sinai where the law was handed down to the Israelites. He is beaten, weary, depressed and says I can’t fight any longer – I am ready to die. 

 

 

We find Paul wrestling with his persecution in the New Testament, but Paul wanted to lead us to be faithful to the end so we find these words in II Timothy 4:7:

 

This is the picture we want as we gather for homecoming. It is a time of encouragement to keep the faith and look for both your earthly reward and your heavenly reward. We remember those who have already gone on before us and kept the faith. The truth is Paul gives us a pretty high bar. Sometimes, I feel more like Elijah. Listen to his words:

What can Elijah teach us about perseverance? What can Elijah teach us about keeping the faith?

 

Fear kept Elijah from relying on the clear demonstration of God’s awesome power. Elijah showing that he is clearly human, responds to his persecution by being fearful. Fear will keep us from seeing and relying on God’s almighty work. Yet we find that even in this state, Elijah knew that he had to turn to God. There is a really important truth here for us. 

 

Elijah had turned from being the almighty prophet used by God to a trembling man fearful for his life. Yet, he knew where he needed to turn. He needed to find God in a big way. Where is your mountain? Where do you turn to when things get rough? Where do you go when you doubt? Elijah went to the mountain. Mt. Sinai – The Israelites had seen God there. Elijah claims this holy mountain as a place to find God. He needs God. He put effort and action in finding God. 

 

Now this isn’t a given. We may take the path of King Ahab. Now think about this. He goes back to Queen Jezebel and the scriptures indicate that he told her everything that happened in detail. He didn’t skip over any of the points. We need to remember something here. King Ahab was there. King Ahab saw God’s mighty works. King Ahab saw Elijah call God to burn up the sacrifice. King Ahab saw it begin to rain as Elijah prayed. King Ahab saw Elijah beat him back to the palace running. Now isn’t obvious that this isn’t Elijah. Yet scriptures tell us that he told Queen Jezebel all that “Elijah had done.” 

 

Can a man call lightening out of the sky? Can a man call a cloud of rain from a clear sky? Can a man outrun a chariot? 

 

This is the opposite of Elijah’s heart felt response of seeking God in his distress. This is King Ahab’s response. He saw but he did not believe. Admittingly, King Ahab has good company – the 12 disciples. In Mark after the feeding of the 5,000, and the disciples saw Jesus walking on water we find in chapter 6 verse 52, for they had not understood about the loaves, and their hearts were hardened.

What did the disciples fail to do? They failed to see God’s almighty power at work. That is called unbelief. Unbelief will take you away from God not toward God. Hebrews 3:7 says the Holy Spirit has a word for you:

 

Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hears as you did in the rebellion (when Israel failed to believe God could take them into the promised land). Revelation is even harsher as Jesus warns the church of Laodicea of being status quo; luke warm, not caring, not seeing God at work, not participating in the works of God. Listen to these words in verse 15:

 

A hardened heart leads to a cold heart and a cold heart will lead you to hell. King Ahab saw God at work and failed to believe. His failure to believe led to his own downfall, the downfall of his wife, and the downfall of a nation. 

 

You can choose to not believe in God, but there are consequences to unbelief. We choose our response in our own tough times. Elijah or King Ahab? 

 

Even when we are looking for God, we can be blinded by preconceived expectations. 

Elijah was searching with the familiar. He was going back to his roots. The Israelites when they received the 10 commandments, they saw God in fire (cloud by day, fire by night), in earthquake (in demonstrating God’s awesome presence on the mountain), and in wind (the Red Sea was split so the Israelites could cross).

 

This is where Elijah would have expected God to be, but he was in the cave and knew God was not in the wind, the fire, the earthquake, but a still small voice. How can we with our expectations of what God is supposed to do and to be not be blinded by ourselves. 

 

In the great love chapter, I Corinthians 13:7 we hear these words: [love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.    When you believe that God loves you and you are living out what it means to love God, you know that through every difficulty, through ever trial that God is still there. You realize that God doesn’t always show up in the time that we though he should, or the way that we thought he should. The challenge is to not let our expectations blind us so that we can’t see God at work. 

 

Elijah was able to see beyond his expectations. His expectations were not to get a death threat from Queen Jezebel. After all he did, he probably thought. He did or God did? Elijah believed that God was at work, but he didn’t understand God’s plan. So what are our lessons:

 

a.        Walk by faith not by sight.

II Corinthians 5:7, “we walk by faith not by sight.” We have to lean on an almighty God, and learn to not lean on what the situation appears to us. We do not ignore the problems. Elijah still had a death threat on him. I think I probably would have been running as well, but we know our God is faithful. 

Romans 4:17 when talking of Abraham’s faith that he believed that God gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. This is a deep faith. Abraham believed in God’s promises even though as the scriptures say “he was good as dead.” Can we believe that God is still at work, when it looks like all that we have is a problem. The life of faith calls us to see God in new ways. 

 

We have to admit Elijah appears to be depressed and completely burned out. God moves him to a place where he can talk with him. Twice God asks him why are you here?

 

Don’t take yourself too seriously. Elijah’s success made him take himself too seriously. He was one person he thought trying to change a nation. God told him there were 7,000 others who were believers in God. He wasn’t the only one. Had Elijah gotten to the point where he could only see God working in the spectacular. Here in this scene. God speaks to Elijah in a still small voice. 

God wasn’t finished with Elijah. God gave Elijah some directions for him to do. He began some of the transitioning of power, but Elijah wasn’t finished. He had work to do. 

 

So how do we persevere?

1.        Remember God is our refuge. We need to rest in his loving arms and to not put too much trust in our own doings. 

2.       God is still working even when we don’t see it. We need to see God in all situations even when it is difficult for us to see. 

3.       Evaluate our life. Are we living for God. Be sure that we haven’t started to stray which will lead to a hardened heart. A hard heart can lead us to hell. 

 

God has saved us. We are looking toward that heavenly home. Billy Graham describes our looking toward our heavenly home as a comfort – “we will be in God’s presence forever.” In heaven our fears and distresses will be gone. We will be with Our God, our Saviour, our King, and our Messiah. 

 

One thing though is for certain. You won’t win your way or work your way into heaven. It is only by God’s grace. It is only in the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe in Jesus as your Savior? 

 

As we look to family homecomings, are we living like a believer? God has a great retirement plan for us. Serve and worship God all day long for eternity. 

 

Elijah’s story ends later after his ministry takes back off full of the Holy Spirit. God comes down and picks him up personally in a chariot and takes him to heaven. A man of faith and an encouragement for all. 

 

Amen. 

 

Matthew 13 could appropriately be called the “Parable Chapter. This parable section is bracketed with questions on Jesus’ messiahship, and his authority and a down right rejection of Jesus. Chapter 12:38, the scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign. Jesus responds the only sign they will get is the sign of Jonah in that he will be buried in the earth for 3 days. We might say how many signs do you need anyway? Jesus responded by saying they were an evil generation (meaning unbelieving) and his true family is the one who does the will of God. At the end of chapter 13, Nazareth rejects Jesus as a prophet and it says he did not do any more miracles there because of their unbelief.   So our parable section is bracketed by two sections stating the people did not believe. The very first parable (the parable of the sower) demonstrates God’s actions. Some believe and some are distracted from believing and some are unbelievers. That parable is followed by the parable of the wheat and the weeds, which talks about God’s judgment on both the believer and unbeliever. We then have another 5 parables in quick succession. The last one again talks about believers and unbelievers. What we are going to do is to divide these 5 parables into 3 sections. 

 

Before we begin, let’s talk about what it means when the Bible says, “kingdom of heaven.” Matthew as a Jew and followed the protocol of the day and would not even say the word God, because God is holy. He substituted the word heaven in it’s place. Kingdom means God’s reign and heaven means God’s presence so we are talking about God’s presence and reign. These parables should not be thought of as our eternal destination. They are talking about the here and now. God’s presence and reign right now. 

 

 

About 15 years ago, I planted some mint in our flower garden. That’s when I discovered that mint is best left to pots. Mint will take the garden over. Shortly there after, I planted some lemon balm. Once lemon balm enters your garden, it never leaves. Both of these plants are invasive. They take over. There should be warning labels on their pots, please think twice before you plant in your garden. They are the kudzu and bamboo of the south. Once they get their foot in the door, they don’t leave. It is the Chinese catfish of the Mississippi. Will we be able to keep them from completely overtaking all rivers and lakes?

 

These are some of the pictures that would come to mind to the first century Jews. Plant a mustard seed – that seems quite strange to start with since they are about the size of a radish seed. They are small. Once thing is for sure, once you have introduced them to your garden, they are there to stay. The full grown mustard seed, which is nothing more than a weed, can grow to impressive heights to 8 to 10 feet, and even take on some of the characteristics of a tree. God did not choose the stately Lebanon Cedar or the California Redwood to be the plant to demonstrate God’s reign and God’s presence. He chose the mustard seed – a weed. 

 

We often in regard to this passage we talk about the growth of the kingdom of heaven – small seed to large plant, but if the kingdom of heaven means God’s presence and God’s reign, where is it that is not and where does he not reign? This probably is not our best interpretation. Let’s go back and ask how would a first century person living in Palestine look at the mustard plant. 

 

Mustard is a weed. There were laws against planting it with vegetables as things of God’s creation were to be separated. Yet the farmer takes one seed and plants it in the garden. God is doing something new here. The old divides of Jew and Gentile are being broken down. The new thing will take over. This new thing is where God’s reign and presence is. Parables are a teaching of God’s ongoing revealing to us about God and God’s work. 

 

Mustard is medicine. Mustard was chewed on for tooth aches. Mustard was ate for upset stomachs. Mustard lowers blood pressure. It is anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, reduces migranes, help improve immunity, Helps with sleep, fights against rhuematory arthritis, and asthma. It is one of the most sought after herbs in the world. Mustard is one of the oldest medicines in the world going back about 3,000 years. I ate mustard on my sandwich today. It is hard to believe Jesus would have missed this point.

 

 

Is not God’s reign and presence about healing both spiritual and physical? Did Jesus choose this invasive weed that is not majestic to look at to demonstrate that God sometimes comes as we do not expect and God comes to heal us – to heal us from sin, to heal us from hatred, to heal us from broken relationships, to set us right before an almighty God. 

 

Yet we also could say that God’s work is often like the tiny mustard seed. It is difficult to see it but its effects will one day be felt by all as we come to the healing given by Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. God’s present work may be hidden to us but one day it will be revealed. 

 

 

First, let’s remember Jesus did not go to Food Lion or Wal-mart to get those little yeast packets. Yeast was on rotten bread or bread that had gone bad. The woman hid this rotten bread with yeast on it in three measures of flour or in other words, in enough flour to make enough bread to fee 100 people. This is a lot of flour. Can the yeast be hidden? No. Dough rises with yeast. You may not be able to see it or identify it, but the effects of the yeast are apparent. This dough is full of yeast. 

 

If God is the yeast, and the world is the dough, then Jesus is saying God seeks his presence and reign everywhere in the world. We may not see it at all or know where God’s presence is, but ultimately there is no hiding of God’s presence. Yeast changes the bread. God changes us. One sure sign of God’s presence is a changed life. Jesus said he came to seek out the lost. We see evidence of God’s actions in the world in God’s healing. 

 

God can heal the one in prison, the one with a bad marriage, the one who has been told their physical body is wearing out or is diseased. God can heal the crack addict. God can heal the one who is sold out to the things of the world. God can heal our broken soul and put us on the road to an eternity to spend with a God who loves us. We should be reminded of the bread that would feed 100 people of God’s banqueting table or our eternal home. 

 

God’s movements and actions may be hard to discern and sometimes seem hidden, but the end result cannot be hidden. God is doing a great work in inviting us toward salvation and in inviting us to begin kingdom living now. This brings us to the 2^nd part. 

 

 

How do we respond to a God who is revealing himself to us in a new way and offering us healing and abundant living? These next two parables seek to answer that question. 

 

God’s reign and presence is made know to these people. The first parable is a treasure in a field. In this passage, the person accidently stumbles upon a very valuable treasure. They were not looking or seeking. It just happened. 

 

Sometimes, we just stumble upon God’s work, and his salvation. We weren’t looking for it. We just found ourselves in this place. You might be able to relate. You found God because you were at the right place at the right time. It is not that you were rejecting God. It is you just weren’t looking for him, but you found him. You recognize the gift of salvation. You recognize the gift of healing. You recognize the gift of knowing your eternal destination. You recognize a life filled with purpose. You recognize that God saved you for good works. You have found your eternal destiny. It is more valuable than anything else you have ever come across. 

 

What do you do when you find God? Yes, you accept him and believe him.   You recognize that by grace salvation has been given. What is obvious in this parable you must become a sold out disciple to God. Nothing can compare to the joy of knowing you are living for God that you are obedient, that you have joy unspeakable and full of glory, that the saints are singing in heaven “come home” come home. All of your wealth and possessions pale in comparison to knowing Jesus as your savior. It changes your priorities. What do people who are sold out to God do? 

 

Isaiah 56:2 says, “maintain justice and do what is right.” 

 

We respond by loving God as he has loved us. We demonstrate God’s love to the world as we love others as God loved us. 

 

I need to name though some dangers of our present generation (these come from July issue of Relevant). These might keep us from responding rightly to God.

1.        Sin is a word not used. We do not own, use, or fear the word sin. Here is our history in the past century. In order to cure the sins of the world, the church became very legalistic and judgmental. In reaction to the atmosphere of judgment, the next generation latched on to the word grace – God forgives you know and lightened up. The current generation thinks the word sin is too harsh and ignores God’s obvious commands in the Bible and says God is a God of grace – God will forgive. We in this generation have an attitude of apathy toward sin. Isn’t everyone going to heaven? We need to recognize that there are some sins so grievous in God’s sight that they have to be dealt with. The Catholics call these mortal sins. That is when we break the 10 commandments with our eyes wide open. I John 5:16 says, there is mortal sin (or a sin that leads to death). The Bible says we should pray for them. 

2.       Our present generation gives money and themselves in things they believe in, but there is a danger according to Relevant Magazine – Compassion Fatigue. “Compassion fatigue is the gradual lessening of compassion over time, usually due to a growing feeling that all the effort being expended is pointless. Compassion spurs us to get involved: to pray for the victims, volunteer hours at a local soup kitchen, participate in a mission trip and give to help the homeless. But compassion fatigue sets in when we work and give … but begin to wonder why things don’t seem to be getting better.” (http://rejectapathy.com/worldview/features/26062-overcoming-compassion-fatigue). 

3.       Being a Stork with our head in the sand. We can ignore issues in this world and pretend they are not there. Maybe they will go away. Here is some statistics that particular affect homeless children. (From Relevant Magazine). “Sex trafficking is a huge issue in the U.S. How does it affect the homeless youth here? The United States has become the number-one destination in the entire world for child sex trafficking. In the past we’ve looked at this as a problem of “other countries.”’

 

If we are sold out onto God, we need to once again claim the word holy – not be confused with those who thought they were better than others (holier than thou). We need to be godly. We need to be followers of God. Have we sold out to a holy God who saved us?

 

The 2^nd parable in this section with the finding of the perfect pearl. We find one who is seeking. Sometimes, we relate better to this parable. We were actively seeking God and trying to understand his ways when he revealed himself to us. How much is it worth to find an almighty and grace filled God? It is worth everything. We dedicate everything that we are and have to God. 

 

We quit asking how little we can give to God, but ask instead, how can I give more. 

 

Matthew 10:22 says, “the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Jesus didn’t try to sugar coat it. There are costs to becoming a Christian. It takes perseverance to maintain a Christian witness. We get tired and weary. People just keep needing help. The task is too big. The job of discipleship is too hard. 

 

How do we live discipleship out at the church? John Maxwell recommends that we focus on three areas:

1)       Worship on Sunday Morning.

2)      Small Group of any kind (Sunday School, during the week).

3)      Serve in a ministry area (need not be weekly).  

Let’s be sure we have these 3 covered before we add anything else. Serving the Lord should be joy filled not stress filled. 

 

Jesus tells us this last parable to remind us what is at stake. God casts a giant fish net and draws in a huge catch. Some fish are useful and ready for use. Some fish have been injured or already been dead. They are rotten. They have gone bad. Those fish are not good for anything. So the fish are separated between useful fish and those that have gone bad or rotten. Matthew once again does not take the easy way out. The rotten fish – those who have gone bad – they are going to hell. 

 

God is actively seeking us and is busy in the world today whether we recognize him or not. 

We have a response to make and that is to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. Recognize Jesus as our Savior and as our Lord. 

The stakes couldn’t be any higher – heaven or hell. Our eternal destiny begins here on this earth. We should be asking how can I be the good fish useful for God’s work?

 

That said though Ephesians 2:10, “we are created in Christ Jesus for good works.”

 

God doesn’t expect a do nothing Christian. Faith changes who we are. We become a follower of Christ. His words are precious to us. We want to become fully obedient to the one who saved us. 

 

Matthew 24:46 says, “blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives.”

 

These parables are a “call to action.” God is seeking us like Kudzu taking over the field. There is no stopping the kudzu. God will not give up on us. He is calling us to action and reminding us of the stake and the seriousness of our task. It is heaven or hell. The only question is our response. What is it going to be? Amen. 

 

“Already gone and sinned.” That reflects an unrepentant heart – a heart full of self and empty of God’s leadership. Last week I listened to Rev. Tim Catlett’s sermon on the “Prodigal Son.” I liked what he said. Parables do not give easy answers to life. In fact, they are to be reflected upon, and you should get a “gotcha moment.” In other words, you should get the unexpected answer that truly calls upon us to make a heart change. In our parable today, we quickly hear this:

Good people go to heaven.

Bad people go to hell. 

The devil tempts you.

God tries to guide you. 

 

Was any of that new? Did you hear a gotcha moment? Is there more to this teaching parable? The unrepentant cannot hear God’s word in his parable teaching. The truly godly people will be moved in their heart as they hear a deeper truth. 

 

Today we look at a “Servant’s Heart.”

 

What is surprising about this story? I see a couple of things. One, the patience of our heavenly Father, and two, the servant’s wrong response. 

 

This week a 48 year old man told me he wasn’t saved. This surprised me because he was telling about his understanding of the Old Testament and the law. We don’t get to heaven by obedience. Jesus taught us that we need grace. This causes us to look away from ourselves as our own savior and to look unto God for grace. I told him he needed to be saved. He was more interested in telling me about how he now understood God’s grace and before he did not. He had head knowledge but not heart knowledge. 

 

Jesus taught against the Pharisees and religious leaders not because he didn’t like them, not because they were the other political party, and not because they were liberal or conservative. He taught against their teachings because they taught head knowledge. The Pharisees would have agreed with my statements above: good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell, the devil tempts you, and God tries to guide you to goodness. There has to be more to the story. The story is teaching us much more than knowing what we are to do. 

 

Our new District Superintendent, Dr. Reggie Ponder, told us pastors on Monday that we should exercise our bodies physically 30 minutes a day, and we should exercise our spiritual body in the form of a daily devotion for 30 minutes a day. Anything new here? No. We all know this stuff. Yet why is it so hard to do what we know we should do? 

 

I have been told these things do not happen without life change. This means a change of heart – a change of heart physically and a change of heart spiritually. We make life resolutions every new year. I want to lose 10 pounds this year. I am going to read the Bible this year. Head knowledge is the beginning point, but if we do not follow through with the heart it doesn’t mean much. 

 

What is surprising then in this story is God knows we are going to mess up yet he is patient with us. God says wait until the end of the harvest. Don’t pull up the weeds during growing season. God is patient with and wants everyone to come unto repentance – a change of heart, but this is part of the gotcha in the story – the servants did not expect this type of response. The farmer or the sower representing Jesus and God says do not disturb the weeds for you will hurt the good as well. If we are to expect the unexpected in Jesus’ parables, then this is a key to understanding this passage. 

 

 

Have you thought that you really understood what someone else wanted and then find out that you were wrong? We are told it is dangerous to assume. We are told that in good relationships that we clarify our thoughts. We make things clear. We state our intentions. We share our feelings. Assumptions lead us to a whole lot of trouble. Assumptions make us think something can or cannot happen when in fact, the truth might be the opposite. I call this the assumption “that old people can’t do that.” 

 

Dianna and I took one morning and rode bikes on the American Tobacco trail. We started at Green Level and rode to Apex and back. We felt pretty good so we then headed and rode about ½ way to Durham. Dianna’s bike is not as easy to ride as mine and it was at that point that she said we have got to turn back. We didn’t do too bad. We rode 19 to 20 miles. Dianna or nana to our grandkids was telling Caleb about our ride. He told nana “that is quiet impressive.” How old are you again nana? She said 53. Caleb then said, “and how old is papa?” He is 55 said nana. Caleb then said again, “that is quiet impressive considering how old you are.” 

 

What was the assumption in our story?

 

The assumption is the servants thought they knew what the farmer or God wanted. Listen closely, God’s children brothers and sisters thought they knew the mind of God. They made assumptions. The assumption was the weeds were bad. I have to confess I am not too fond of crab grass or poison ivy myself. But there’s more the assumption is the weeds are so bad they have to go and it doesn’t matter if we hurt the good seed or God’s children in getting rid of the bad seed or children of the devil. 

Problem #1 – The servants are impatient

 

We are not a patient people.  We want it our way. The Burger King way, and we want it now. Our impatience shows with the recent Casey Anthony trial. Yes, it appeared that this was a slam dunk. That Casey was guilty. One of the jurors started talking and said the defense showed that it wasn’t black and white – that there was a lot of gray in there. In other words, the defense shot holes in the persecutions charges and it appeared reasonable. It seems that about ½ the people think this is a miscarriage of justice and about ½ are saying our justice system works just fine. We are impatient when things don’t go our way. 

 

The scriptures say in II Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” The passage continues and talks about the final judgment when even the earth itself will be judged and destroyed by fire, what type of people should we be in “leading a life of holiness and godliness?”    Aren’t you glad that God is doing the judging and not us. We often say we want justice but what we might really mean is that we want revenge. Somebody has to pay. 

 

 

The servants become the jury, the judge, and hand out the sentence – guilty as charged. Matthew 7:1 says, “do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”

 

The Lord’s prayer talks about being forgiving people. Forgive others and God will forgive you. This passage in Matthew 7 really struck me. Show a judgmental attitude to others and that’s what God will give you. Show an attitude of mercy and compassion and that is what God will show you. 

 

The surprise in this story is God’s amazing grace. 

 

Let’s learn from this story. Judgment is not reserved for us. Judgment will come at the end of the age. It will not be us then that will be picking and choosing the evil from the good. It will be God’s angels. This means we are to live Christian lives where we do not sit in judgment of others. 

 

We do not prejudge someone based upon their skin color, their financial status, their last name, nor the country they live in. We do not pass judgment on others and leave no room for grace. Yes, if you do the crime, you do the time, but we should be a people interested in retribution – building people up, retraining people. We should be interested in prison ministries. We should be interest in people and seeing their head knowledge that says good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell with heart knowledge. Heart knowledge is the realization that none of us are good enough to go to heaven on our own. It is by grace and only by grace. 

 

We should have patience with those we have invited to church. God is patient and longsuffering. 

We should be patient on those who have not made a heart change and are still operating on head knowledge. In other words, their lifestyle does not reflect what we know. 

 

If a judgmental attitude only brings judgment and an attitude of mercy only brings mercy, why then do we not practice a merciful attitude on everything we do? 

 

To criticize, to tear down those who are not living as they should for God will only hurt those as well that are trying to live for God. 

 

This parable gets down to what attitude do you live with?

 

Judgmental or mercy.

Impatience or patience.

Working hard to see them going to heaven or glad they are going to hell. 

 

This really begs the question – the good seed that God has planted in all of our hearts. Are we allowing it to grow and bloom? 

 

In this parable often called the “wheat and the tares” is the story of something good and something bad where the difference really is not discernable until the harvest. The tares looked like the wheat and the wheat looked like the tares. 

 

Perhaps this is another surprise.

Sometimes those who look like wheat are in fact the tare. In other words, those who look like they do the right things on the outside are playing games with us for in the inside, their hearts belong to the devil. 

 

It is to go to church on Sunday and live for the devil the remainder of the week. It is when our neighbors see a kind person but do see the anger and judgment put on a spouse and family. It is to be loving to Christians and hateful, prejudicial, and evil to those who are not like us. It is to love the church member and hate the homeless. It is to say Amen at church and Damn you at home. 

 

Jesus was clear. Only in the last judgment will all things be made clear – the truly bad and the truly good. This parable says you are not too judge. You have received patience and mercy. You should also give it to all in the world you meet. 

 

This is a servant’s heart – a heart filled with the grace of God because God first gave grace to us. 

Amen.

 

 

 

My friend Robin and I would often go exploring into the woods to find new adventures. My miniature collie Lassie would always be at my side. On one of our trips, we had walked the ridge line of the mountain about 3 miles from the house and were investigating the new strip mine. We were on top of the cut in the woods looking over the newly cut cliff, which ranged anywhere from 100 to 200 feet high. It was scary to look that far down and we were right on the edge. It was then that something strange happened. There was a rustling in the leaves. Then you could see a line in the leaves. Then you could see dirt appear. It was as something was moving. Then we noticed that this strange line and ground appearing circled us. The ground appearing had now grown from 6 inches to about 3 feet. It was at this moment that we realized, we were sliding down the cliff. We were like a strange island – trees and all moving slowly but steadily. We quickly ran to the cliff that was a appearing and tried to climb up the wet clay face. We made several attempts and now the wall that appeared was six feet high. It was then that we realized that we had been cut off from the good and solid foundation of the mountain. We had taken an action – walking close to the end of the cliff, and this was the result. The mountain moved, and there was no turning back. We slowly moved down the cliff further and further away from the solid mountain. In fact, we ended up in a large lake or slurry pond where we had to swim for safety and then wade through waist deep slurry. I carried my dog. The separation just seemed to get worse and worse. 

 

This reminds me of the story of Adam and Eve. They took the fruit that God said do not eat. That was the action, and the result was separation from God that seemed to grow further and further away from God each generation. Humanity ended up in God’s slurry pond. It was by the ark and Noah’s family that any was saved at all. All through the Old Testament, we find stories of God helping people wade through the waist deep slurry to safety. It is true today as well. God seeks a relationship with us. We have slidden down the strip mine cliff and are far from God yet God came in the flesh through Jesus Christ to help us get back to solid ground.  It is a reminder to us of our fall in the Garden of Eden when humanity chose a self centered mode of behavior rather than a God-centered one, and critical to our understanding of today’s passage is this line from Genesis 3, “man has become like one of us knowing good and evil….[he] also might take from the tree of life, and eat and live forever – therefore the Lord God sent him from the Garden.” Humanity is no longer God centered and God does not want humanity to live this way. God is the hound dog of heaven seeking us out to have a relationship with us. That relationship includes our being God centered. Now to our text for today:

 

Our text today includes some misunderstood and controversial lines – just listen to this: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. You have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day” (v. 53 NIV). If this passage isn’t strange enough, it also has overtones of Holy Communion that will still practice today. Are we eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood? Catholics say yes. Protestants say no. Both views have something important to say to us. What is going on during communion, and what is this passage really trying to say to us?

 

First, let’s look at this passage as a metaphor. This is the most common way Protestants look at this passage. The eating and drinking are taking Christ into our life. The blood is Christ’s death on the cross, which makes possible our redemption. The bread is God’s eternal life for those who believe. In it’s most simplest terms then the metaphor is belief in Christ for your redemption and Christ promises to give you eternal life and raise your body on the day of judgment. In other words, the salvation story. On reading a blog by a Southern Baptist preacher, he commented that the language was forceful and is begging us to see more than just a simple metaphor of salvation. So, what is the more? Let’s unpack this passage.  To do so, we will look backwards at the background of this passage to help us to see the “more” of this passage. 

 

Jesus is king at metaphor – taking a daily activity and turning it into something spiritual. At the heart of this passage is “eternal life.” Jesus takes a physical condition – that is we have to eat to live. Bread was the most common food for the normal person in Jesus’ day. Bread provided their daily sustenance. Jesus then takes the common to make it uncommon. This physical bread was them compared to a higher need in a person’s life. That is their need to be sustained by God redirected to be God centered rather than self centered. We are going to go back to verse 25 to begin our conversation. 

 

 

Back in verse 25, the people were amazed how quickly Jesus travelled and they ask “where did he come from?” Jesus responds by stating they only followed him to fulfill their daily physical needs. They were missing the bigger picture of sustenance for eternity. They should be seeking eternal food from God that sustains the spiritual person. 

 

Could we do that? Follow God because of the physical benefits. I will never forget the prayer said by a woman, “God turn the red lights green for I am running late.” Are we looking for some genie that we can rub the bottle when we have problems or difficulties in life or are we looking for something more?  Let’s be honest, do we get mad when God allows things to happen that we prefer did not happen? Take sickness, health, disease, death – is this the only time we need God, or how about when we are in perfect health. To put it more bluntly, do we worship God so that our daily needs (or wants) are met? Is our relationship with God about all what God can do for us? Or do we allow God to use us as his instruments? The scriptures demonstrate for us that God will help our physical situation but he is far more interested in our spiritual condition.   Problem #1 – self centeredness.

 

 

The people want a sign. We all seem to be like Gideon the judge in the OT. God I will believe you if the fleece is wet, then God I will believe you if the fleece is dry. Give us a sign you are from God. Now remember, Jesus just feed the 5,000 the day before. Do they need a sign daily? The people say Moses gave them a sign from heaven - manna. What are you going to do Jesus? Jesus fed the 5,000 with 5 barley loaves and 2 fishes. How much blessing to us does God have to do before we recognize this is a God thing? 

 

Jesus corrects the people. It wasn’t Moses who gave them manna it was God, and God is still in the giving business, and if they would only seek him out, God would give them bread to last for eternity. The people’s asking for a sign is a lack of belief. Jesus in effect was the sign. We do not need to see anything else but the work of Jesus. Jesus said I am the bread of life – the bread that keeps on giving. Jesus is like the feeding of the 5,000 – after all of the remnants have been collected, there is more bread than when they started. Did you miss that point? When Jesus gave the people bread, there was more bread left over than when they began. Giving with Jesus results in multiplication. Here this now: Giving with Jesus results in multiplication. This folks are messed up. God is working. They don’t see it. You think God is going to leave them there? No way. So we have identified two problems: self centeredness, which is as old as the Garden of Eden and unbelief. 

 

 

Now we move from the common to the uncommon. Jesus says simply, “I am the bread of life.” Jesus loved the “I am” sayings. I am the good shepherd, the light, the gate, the Alpha and Omega, the vine, and now I am the Bread of life. Why is this important? Bread is the sustenance of life. Jesus is saying I am all you need. I am from God. I am God. We should remember God’s words to Moses, “I am that I am.” Jesus has now moved from the physical bread with the feeding of the 5,000 to a spiritual plane. Jesus is asking them to move from just saying me, me, me, to we, we, we. He is moving us from ourselves to others, but we first have to be moved in our heart. Jesus is saying don’t be satisfied with bread and food that will run out. I can give you sustenance to last for eternity. Just make some comparisons. Physical bread runs out. There is always left over Jesus. In other words, there is always more. This is the living bread that keeps on giving. 

 

So Jesus is our solution. 

His self giving overcomes our self centeredness. Jesus will of the Father to draw us unto him counters our lack of faith. The result is in this bread we obtain eternal life and the promise of the resurrection.   Jesus does not back down one bit but he ratchets up the tension even more by claiming that the bread he gives to the world to receive eternal life is his flesh. 

 

 

Jesus again restates his case. He is the bread of life. In him resides eternal life. Jesus does not back down but states his case even more forcefully and foretells communion and the fact that each generation must see and accept Christ’s divinity, his self giving, his redemptive plan. 

 

 

Is that literal or a metaphor? We don’t want to sound cannibalistic so we tend to go with metaphor. In the strict sense, we find that Jesus is foretelling of his willing sacrifice on the cross and the shedding of his blood, which brings forgiveness of sins. So our basic meaning is if we “believe in Jesus we will have eternal life.” This is the metaphor.

 

Every time we take communion, we are remembering Christ’s redemptive work. But, what about the word “abide?” Or what about the bread that keeps on giving? These are both clues to the “more” of this passage. In John Ch. 15 were a whole discourse is given on abiding, gives us a clue to the abiding here. It is Jesus abides in the Father. We abide in Jesus so therefore we abide in the Father. We find that here in vs. 56. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. It is hard for us to not pick up on this section the sense of taking communion. We have found things that we hold to during communion: redemption, fellowship, remembrance, looking forward to the 2^nd coming and resurrection, and certainly not too exclude Christ’s real presence in the act of communion, but abiding that is a part of this passage where the metaphor does not bring out. We tend to go to God’s redemptive work on the cross and our reward for believing, but skip the in between.   

 

Eating and drinking are active words. If we are to abide in Christ, we are actively involved in doing so. Perhaps, Holy Communion is a reminder that we are to faithfully abide in Christ. 

 

Blood and Drink are the food we need to sustain life. We found in the Garden of Eden, we no longer could eat of the tree of life. Jesus has said come and eat. Jesus is the Tree of Life. In Revelation 22, in the center of the heavenly Jerusalem, is the tree of life. We have been brought back to the garden. The existence that God intended for us – to be God centered and to live in fellowship with him. This is possible now! 

 

Isaiah 55:1, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you that have no money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

You are never going to run out of Jesus. This is more than just believing in Jesus. The devil believes and shudders. This is abiding. 

 

Conclusion: God is still a self giving God. Just as there were more fragments of bread after the feeding of the 5,000, there is more to Christ as he gives himself to us. Certainly, Christ’s self giving is a story of the cross – his beaten body, his shed blood. Certainly, this story of redemption is a story of continuous relationship and growth as Christ continues to give of himself so that we are more like Christ every day. 

 

The problem is our self centeredness and our lack of faith and sometimes right down denial of God’s work. Christ is saying you must maintain focus on him. Our salvation is in Christ. Our sustenance is through Christ. Our growth is in Christ. Communion is a time of recentering ourselves. It is a time that we shake loose the bonds of self centered living as we face Christ in that moment of receiving the bread and the wine. It is a time we recenter ourselves on God’s self giving, his likeness unto us. It is a time we abide with him and eat from the fruit of the tree of life. 

 

So what is communion? It is fellowship with Christ and all of the saints. It is abiding in God’s presence. Eventhough we all have slid down the cliff of separation from God, Christ brings us back up that cliff to the stable mountain. Communion is living into God’s amazing grace. Abide in Christ for he abides in the Father. 

 

If any self centeredness or lack of faith is keeping you from abiding in Christ, then make it right today, right now. 

 

Amen.

 

What makes us a learner? It really begins at home before you even go to school, but it’s the lesson I learned in school that really stand out. I share with you some of my reflections:

 

Pay attention – We need focus in life if we are to set goals and make goals. We were doing a coloring project. I had been given grapes to color. I thought this was such a childish exercise for a first grader. I decided to multi-task and watch cars drive down the road as I colored. I was awakened out of my time of pondering about the world when Mrs. Piliedge said, “color in the lines” and grabbed my ear and gave it a good yank. I was coloring about 3 inches out from the grapes. Note to self: teacher is not into abstract art – keep focused. 

 

Don’t be afraid to ask – I noted one day that a puddle was growing under the young ladies desk next to mine. I didn’t know for sure what was going on but I thought the teacher ought to know. She told the young lady to ask when she had to go to the bathroom. I marked that one in my book. Going to the bathroom is OK. 

 

Easy work (cheating) is not encouraged – One day as we were taking a spelling test, a teacher asked me what I was doing. I told her I was copying the spelling words from the desk to my test paper. She said I couldn’t do that. I told her sure I could I had been doing it all year. She said did I want a paddling from her or the principal. This sounded too much like wait to your father comes home. I chose the teacher. I made a note to myself – sometimes things are best unsaid. 

 

Hard work is encouraged. After all that my first grade school year had been, I certainly did not expect to get any recognition, but I was awarded a 1923 Silver Dollar for being the best male reader in class. Note to self: school is OK after all. That silver dollar made all of the world of difference about my attitude about school. My love of learning began on that day. 

 

Our text begins with Jesus going up a mountain, which generally means something important, holy, or God’s presence. It said that some worshipped him but some doubted. Interestingly in a straight translation of the Greek you would come up with they worshipped and doubted him, which means we are not always of one opinion. We lose our way at times and have to come back. We lose our love of learning and have to get renewed again. Remember Jesus’ 3 questions to Peter, do you love me. Then feed my sheep. In this passage, Jesus gives us instructions that have defined what it means to be church. 

 

Make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them. We might say it this way: evangelize, bring them into the faith, and teach them what the faith means. In all of this, learning is a crucial aspect of this passage. 

 

What does Disciple mean? A pupil or student of Jesus. Jesus said simply, “follow me.” We follow Jesus’ teachings and his life. Before we talked more about being a disciple, we need to broach the subject that our culture often will discourage us from fully being a disciple of Christ. So we look at a few assumptions that we might come to church with that will make our learning more difficult.

 

Dallas Willard gives this one – “You can be a Christian without being a disciple.” We want to say “yes” at the altar rail and then not let God’s message impact our life. Our society says that’s OK. It’s not OK, we are called to be disciples. What society says is a part time Christianity is just fine. Dallas Willard says we are seeking an “easy” decision. Deitrich Bonheoffer says, we want “cheap grace.” In effect, we are saying, I am willing to be a Christian if I don’t have to change. By definition, Christian says you are a Christ follower and God is looking for changes in your life.  This assumption lacks commitment.

 

Stanly Hauerwas gives this one – “You can be a Christian without training.” We have gotten to where we think we can be a Christian apart from the church.   Now that’s a problem. First it is in violation of scriptures – Hebrews 10:25, but as well, the church is seeking to form you. Colossians 3 says to “bear one another,” “forgive one another,” and “teach one another.”  We should expect to be transformed and transformation is a moral choice. This assumption of no training lacks desire.

 

Dallas Willard gives this one – “there is an assumption that being a true disciple will ruin your life.” What this is saying is that if we give ourselves completely to God he obviously is going to send us somewhere we don’t want to go like Africa or Pakistan. This is saying, “God couldn’t use me right where I am.”  This assumption dwells on fear. 

 

When our understanding of what it means to be a disciple is filled with assumptions such as these, I would have to say we are filled with both “worship” and “doubt.” While we might feel comfort that we are also like the disciples, we must also realized that these 11 disciples changed the world. God has called us to change our community so let us consider ways that we can share our faith, bring into the faith, and to teach the faith. 

 

In the Spirit of Disciplines (29), Dallas Willard says, “it is only logical that we should emulate his daily actions.” Perhaps the WWJD saying help us in our doing. So you have claimed Christ, want to claim Christ, are baptized, want to be baptized, which means you want to be student or apprentice of Jesus.

 

1.        Get the Desire to be a Disciple

Matthew 13:44 – Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure in a field. In this parable there is no measure of the cost. There is not haggling to get the cheapest cost or the easiest way. There is only one desire and that one desire brings a tremendous amount of joy. Everything is sold to buy the field. Everything is counted worthless in comparison of the treasure in the field. It is the treasure in the field and the treasure only that give true joy. 

Matthew 13:45 – Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. When he finds a pearl that is extremely valuable, he thinks nothing of selling all that he had to gain the one pearl. Nothing compared to that one pearl. Not his own personal riches and wealth in life. He didn’t count the cost. He just was glad he could obtain it. 

 

This is what we mean by desire. Everything pales in comparison. We get confused when scriptures tell us things such as hate your mother and your father. I don’t believe that we are actually told to hate our parents – that is contrary to scriptures that say honor your parents – what is being said is in the priorities of life, being Christian has to be number 1.   It means what you do with your time, who you marry, how your raise kids all has to come under this umbrella – I desire Christ above all things. We don’t neglect others because the Bible tells us to love others. Christ doesn’t take away things in life, Christ fulfills life and make it more abundant. It is the thief the devil that seeks to steal life away from you so you will not have eternal life that God seeks to give you. 

 

2.        Become a Student – One of things that pushed the desire to learn and to be schooled in this country was the desire to study God’s word so we find churches across the nation involved in education. If you are wanting to be a student of Jesus, how could you do anything less than to read the gospels over and over again. 

 

3.        Learn the Language – It is important for us to hear the word and see it lived out in the life of a worshipping church. We say the Lord’s prayer every week We do this because the Lord’s prayer is formational. It is written in the plural and obviously intended to be an act of worship. It is so I don’t forget the teachings of Jesus. He is ready to set up his kingdom. He is more than willing to see my daily needs are meet. He wants me to live a life of forgiveness. We pray to remind us that prayer should be a daily habit. Sometimes in church we pray confessional prayers that are hard and we might never pray them on our own. We pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit meaning that God is bigger than our own conceptions. We pray to change us. We learn the language so that we can follow Christ. 

 

4.       Find a Mentor or Master – while we all know that Christ is our supreme example, we also see where Paul in his epistles says follow me as I follow Christ.   It is right, and good, and a wonderful thing for us to follow some the habits of the saints of God. Maybe we follow two or three people where we know one person and they can pray, one studies the scripture, and one serves. We are encouraged in the Bible to encourage one another. We are not following Christ alone. We count on each other. We mentor each other. I learn from you and you learn from me. 

 

1.        Use Your Sphere of Influence

We have a tendency in life to break out into compartments our work life, our family life, our spiritual life, and so on. This is a trick of the devil so that we buy into the lie that we keep our faith separate from other avenues of our life. Jesus is life. He is not kept separate. Where do you spend most of your time during the week? If you are working, it is work. If you are a stay at home mom, then your family is your biggest job. Where ever that big time for you is, give it to Jesus. Rather than trying to segregate the spiritual life to a one hour time of worship on Sunday, see that all of these people you meet are an opportunity you have to witness to Christ. What is your 2^nd biggest time slot, if you work, it probably is your family. Be Christ to those you work with and to your family. 

 

2.        Seek Transformation

Paul didn’t tell us to not be “conformed to the world, but be transformed” for nothing. He wants to change us to be more Christ like. Dallas Willard in the Spirit of Disciplines, we have come to see “salvation as a mere forgiveness of sins.” What is he saying. We want the easy way, and are not seeking out the hard choices in life where the power of the Holy Spirit goes after to root out sin deep in our life. It is not just forgiveness. That is the beginning. God wants us to be his holy people. 

 

3.        Teach by Example

One of the early Church followers, Tertullian, when talking of Martydom said you cannot stop Christianity, because it is a life of sacrifice by definition. What the early Christians had that we lack is a lack of fear. They were not concerned about what might happen when you accept Christ as your savior. Even death did not scare them. You made the commitment because there was nothing more important in your life. 

 

Brother Lawrence

Brother Lawrence was a cook for the Carmelite Friars in Paris in the last 1600’s. After his health would not allow him to stand for long periods of time, he repaired sandals for the friars. He was a common man, a simple man, but it his letters and notes that were published into several books that we remember and still read 300 years later. 

 

It said of him, “the good brother found God everywhere from the humblest task to praying in community” (The Practice of Presence of God, 22). His prayer was that he do everything for the “love of God” (50). His last words were these, “it is our one business my brothers, to worship him and love him without thought of anything else” (28). 

 

I can feel God’s presence as I read his writings. What will be said of us. Making a disciple is being a disciple. Being a disciple, is to engulf ourselves into God. Engulfing ourselves in God, will result in a sharing of a lived out faith in our own life. 

 

God call us. To make disciples. To baptize and to teach. 

Trinity Sunday is a reminder to us that God is above all and in all. He is greater than our thoughts and comprehensions. Surely, this God deserves our worship. 

 

Are you a disciple?

Do you worship God and God only?

Are you a Christ follower?

Does your life espouse Christ? 

 

God wants you today and he is calling your name today. Amen. 

 

 

In the June 6^th issue of Newsweek, it has a picture of a tornado on it with a title, “Weather Panic: This is the New Normal (And we’re hopelessly unprepared).” The premise of the article is our weather pattern has changed. I quote: “the stable climate of the last 12,000 years is gone.” No matter what your opinion is on the weather and global warming, this has been an unusual year. 2010 was the hottest year since we started keeping records. Weather seems to get our attention. Our family was in Sanford on the day the tornado hit. Most of us probably know someone that was affected by the tornado. We have had men in our church that have made multiple trips down to Sanford to saw and haul off trees for people. Truly if freakish weather is the new normal, I am not looking forward to it. No one wants to be a Joplin Missouri. This article predicts that we are going to face more and more droughts and flooding. I think in God’s kingdom out of control weather will not be the norm. We live in a broken world and we are all broken people. Today, we celebrate Pentecost. It comes 50 days or a week of weeks (7 x 7) after Easter. It is the celebration of the first harvest. Israel’s climate is about a month ahead of ours so now is the time for the first summer harvest. In time Israel by their own tradition began to also celebrate Pentecost as a time that Moses received the law as it was thought that the Israelites traveled for 50 days before they got from Egypt to Mt. Sinai. 

 

Often in our Bible stories, we have strange weather events. When Moses received the 10 commandments on Mt. Sinai we have a string of different events: the mountain shook (earthquake), thunder, lightning, a black cloud covered the mountain, and a blast of the trumpet that made the Israelites shake (Exodus 19). In this story, God is trying to get our attention. God seems to allow bad weather to come our way. I believe it is the result of our human condition. We live in a broken world and we are broken people that have first chosen to live in disobedience to God. In a broken world, people die during bad weather events. Bad weather is scary and frightening. Today we bring you God’s message to a broken world.

 

 

We find bad weather of sorts in the Pentecost story. A violent wind whips into the worshipping disciples, but it isn’t the bad weather that we run from, hide in basements from, and have to rebuild after we have been hit. This is bad weather meant to get our attention. God has rolled into town. God is seeking to change our broken world and broken bodies and broken spirits. Pentecost in its very essence is a story of Reversals. It is the story of an almighty God intervening into our world. It is a story of a message going out to the entire world that there is healing and salvation in Jesus Christ. 

 

In Genesis chapter 11, we have the story where the people said, “let us make a name for ourselves.” In other words, we are our own god. We do not need any creator god. We will show god himself how great we are as we build a tower to the ourselves to our own glory. 

 

Here is the problem. Humanity thinks they are everything. Humanity thinks they can solve all problems. Humanity thinks they do not need a god. They were full of themselves. We still are. God judged the people because they were filled with pride. God confused the people. They took sides. They spoke different languages. The people were divided. This is always the result of sin: destruction and a downward spiral. 

 

On Pentecost, God gives a solution. Not only can we have Jesus as our Savior, we can have God’s spirit so that we can live for him or as we said last week – you cannot do it alone. You cannot fix yourself of all our human weaknesses. We need God. God gives us a reversal of Babylon to demonstrate to us his desire to heal us of our brokenness. He now makes it so that everyone is in unity. Everyone heard their language. God healed the divide. Through Jesus, we receive healing. 

 

The gospel writer of Luke is also the writer of Acts. He tells this story to get our attention. While I am not sure completely what happened on that day, one thing is evident – God made an appearance. It is often referred to as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Just as the waters of baptism signify the cleansing of our souls so the baptism of the Holy Spirit signifies the power of God. The wind was disruptive or violent. You were aware of the winds presence but you didn’t know where it had come from. All 120 gathered were filled with the Holy Spirit. 12 represents the 12 tribes of Israel and 10 is the number representing completion. There is no doubt here in this story that 120 or 12 X10 represents God’s intention to fill the entire nation of Israel with the Holy Spirit. 

 

In the tradition of the Israelites going back to Mt. Sinai, the tradition said that God’s spirit was offered to all nations on earth (70). Numbers are important in the Bible. 7 represents God’s number of completion and 10 represents humanities number of completion so when you take 7 and multiply it by 10 it means everyone so the whole earth was offered God’s spirit but only Israel accepted and it was given in a form of fire. Fire represents both a purification as metals become more pure and their impurities float to the top and fire represents judgment as things such as sticks, logs and paper burn to dust. Fire in the form of the Holy Spirit is a reminder to us that God gives us both judgment and a promise. Judgment in the form of disobedience to God and promise in the form of Jesus who died for our sins. 

 

The Pentecost story is a reminder to us that as Israel in all of its imperfections and sin answered God’s call to receive God’s Spirit that the Holy Spirit is now offered to everyone – sinners and saints. 

 

The story of Pentecost – Again a story of healing. God is a God of unity not division. God is a God of inclusiveness not exclusion. This day – the day of Pentecost is meant to get our attention. God is saying to the world. Hay! I want to save you! I am sending those who have been saved completely filled with me. That’s what we as Christians are supposed to be like – completely filled with God. 

 

This is Great News! Why then the problem?

 

God is trying to get everyone’s attention, and its like no one gets it. Instead of seeing people bringing unity, and bearers of God’s healing, they saw drunk people. In other words, they were acting according to preconceived expectations. 

 

You see this is where we like to put God. In a box. We put God in a box so that we can confine God. If God gets out of the box, we have seen what might happen. He is a pretty wild God. He may try to change me. 

 

It goes back to sin. Our human condition is one of disobedience. We don’t want to see our need of God. We don’t want to admit we need God. Look at the story closely, these were religious type people – and they were missing God. 

 

A recent survey in Minneapolis, Minnesota came up with 52% of the people said they weren’t sinners. 52%.  What this means is 52% of the people are saying I don’t need God. They are ready to build another tower of Babel to show how great humanity is. 

 

This is where the people on that day of Pentecost. It is said they “sneered” at them. They looked at them in disgust. People filled with God’s Spirit. They probably were saying they were weak people.  

 

Peter then in response gives a sermon. He says the scriptures say according to Joel, God is going to do a new thing. God is going to fill people with his spirit. God is going to use nature itself to get our attention because God has a message for us. He is a healing God. God wants to heal us from our own sins. Salvation comes through Jesus. 

 

Peter went on to preach to them about Jesus. How that Jesus was God’s gift to humanity. Jesus was the Messiah the deliverer of sin and brokenness. Jesus was prophesied about in the Bible. Then he told a truth we all need to hear. Humanity crucified God’s gift. Yes, that’s right. We all took place in this event. Our natural tendency to sin, death, and destruction and the downward spiral – we were there and yelled “crucify him! Crucify him! 

 

We may feel just as they felt on that day. The crowd was convicted. They said what can we do since we in our sin crucified the Messiah. Peter said simply, Repent and be baptized. Everyone of you – no exclusions. Why? There is forgiveness of our sin, new life, and healing in Jesus Christ. 3,000 were saved that day. Maybe this is your day for God’s Word never comes back void. 

 

There is no other name in which we can be saved except in Jesus. 

Amen. 

 

What does it mean to fulfill all righteousness? It was a statement that Jesus made to John when John in essence told him you are a better man than I, you should baptize me. It showed that John realized Jesus’ superior character and John should know for Jesus was his cousin. Jesus’ ministry is about to begin here on earth, and he journeys from Galilee or even as far away as Nazareth, which is in the hill country beyond Galilee to be baptized. We ask why baptism? What is the significance? Why is John reluctant to baptize Jesus? Questions.   Questions. Jesus said it must be for God has willed this as part of his plan. That’s what it means to “fulfill all righteousness.” It means to live fully in God’s will. Jesus’ baptism was a part of God’s will and plan. Why do we baptize? Jesus gave us the answer – for God willed it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I quote from an unknown source: “When God bolts the door, don't try to get in through the window.  The will of God never will lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you.”

 

 

God said it must be done. Why baptism? Because it signifies the forgiveness of sins as we repent and seek to live in God’s will. Baptism is a gift. Baptism signifies God’s grace. 

 

God’s will should always trump our will.

 

Jesus told John, “it was the proper thing to do.” John’s reluctance to baptize Jesus came from his sense of duty. His sense of duty told him that the most righteous, the most learned, the elder should baptize the other. He in a sense was saying our tradition says you should baptize me. 

 

I ask the question again, why baptism? The Jews were Jews because of circumcision. Why introduce something new?

 

First, baptism is open to all. Only males were circumcised.  Both female and male are baptized. Only Jews were circumcised. Both Jews and Greeks are baptized. God is doing something new. God’s salvific work has broadened beyond the nation of Israel. While circumcision represents, an identity as a Jew and baptism as an identify as Christian, Baptism is much more. 

 

Baptism is clearly seen in the baptism of Jesus as living in God’s will. We go back to the Qumran community and John the Baptizer’s message. Baptism is about forgiveness of sins. It is about cleansing. It is about living a pure life. It is about living in what God not ourselves consider right. 

 

When we are baptized, we are saying God’s way is my way. 

When we are baptized we are saying, Christ was baptized as a model for us to be baptized. When we are baptized we are saying that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is the way we find cleansing, but that is not all. 

 

Second, baptism is living into God’s will.

Third, baptism and the presence of the Holy Spirit have close ties throughout the gospels and the book of Acts. 

 

 

Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness or in other words because God willed it. When Jesus was actually baptized, we find his work here on earth racketed up a level with the Holy Spirit, and that is not all – God says this is my Son whom I am well pleased.

 

Keeping in God’s will results in God’s pleasure.

 

 

Maybe for us as humans, it is in letting go and saying God willed it. God could have done it another way, but this is the way God willed. I don’t have to understand it. I just have to let go of my own personal prejudices. Maybe, that is also a part of baptism, and that is recognized I am letting go of what I think is right. I am letting go of what I think is my duty, and I am just relying on God and trusting him. I am letting go to let God save me, and change me into the person God desires me to be.