Monthly Archives: May 2008

What Would You Do?

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This is a sermon that I gave at Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost (27 June 2004).  The Scriptures for this Sunday were 2 Kings 2: 1 – 2, 8 – 14, Galatians 5: 1, 13 – 25, and Luke 9:  51 – 62.

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There was, a number of years ago, a statement popular among Christians asking “What would Jesus do?” When I first read the Scriptures for today I was reminded of that phrase. And as I began working on this sermon, I came across something that might answer that question. There is a bumper sticker out today that essentially says, “When Jesus said ‘love your enemies’, he didn’t mean kill them.” (http://www.brethren.org/oepa/LoveYourEnemies.html)

Now I have never been particularly enamored with this phrase which asks us what Jesus would do. For no matter what the situation might be, I am pretty sure I know what Jesus would do; it is what you or I would do that I am interested in knowing. The problem is that, in wondering what Jesus would do, we remove any responsibility that we might have in resolving that particular situation.

In asking what Jesus would do, we conveniently find a way to get out of taking action. We are like the young man in the Gospel reading today, willing to follow Jesus but not on His terms. We don’t mind hearing that Jesus came to save us; we just don’t want to get involved in helping others to find out what Jesus is all about. And we want this meaning in terms of our rewards, not our responsibilities.

We often think of Christianity in terms of what it means to us. We look at what we will get out of being Christians but we are unwilling to share in other’s sorrowing and pain. We despise pain and suffering and regard them as something to be avoided at all costs. We associate God with the pleasant things in life; if there is agony, then God must be absent or such pain and agony is punishment for our sins. Too many churches, too many pastors present a message that focuses inward and not towards others. Too many churches and too many pastors present a message of the Gospel that is a feel good about one’s self when the real message of the Gospel is to go out into the world.

In looking inward, we are blinded to the responsibilities of claiming the faith. Note that what Paul condemns in his words to the Galatians are inward, selfish properties. All that Paul condemns are designed to serve the individual at the expense of others.

In calling for us to show kindness, love, and care, Paul gets individuals to turn outward, turn to others in the community. Paul already, through his own experiences, knows that Jesus would show love and kindness in everything He does; Paul wants to know what the Galatians are going to do. He is asking us the same thing. Where is the focus of our action? Do we do things for what we get out of it or do we do things so that others benefit?

We as Methodists should know the answer to that question. John Wesley showed by his own actions and failures what happens when you seek something for one’s self. Before that night in the chapel on Aldersgate Street, John Wesley’s action, his whole purpose was for himself. How could he be a better Christian? How could he find his place in heaven?

But, despite all the good that he might have done with his service and care for the poor and the downtrodden, he was a failure. No matter what he tried to do, he could not find the peace that he sought; he could not find the calm to soothe the storm that troubled his soul.

Now, I have to admit that many years ago I probably saw life in much the same way, though never with the same fervor and zeal that marked the Wesley boys in their ministry. I felt that if I did good works, went to church on Sunday, and cried out against injustice and hatred like others, the rewards of heaven would be mine. And while I thought that I was a good, hard-working Methodist, there was still a part of me that saw the work and effort that I put into being a Christian as being for myself. All the effort and thought that I might put into life was just as meaningless as the work John Wesley did before Aldersgate. And while I may not have plunged to the depths of depression and despair that marked both John and Charles Wesley at that time in their lives, my life was not easy.

I cannot say whether I have had the impact on others that John Wesley did, or will I ever presume to think that I have. Perhaps when I am finished on this earth, at some far distant time in the future, I will find out. But in the meantime, having accepted Jesus as my own personal Savior, I have to ask myself each day, “will what I have done today allow me to seek perfection in Christ?” It is not enough to simply say that I am a Christian. I have to make sure that my focus is on Christ and not on this world. That is why the young man in today’s Gospel reading could not follow Christ; he was unwilling to give up this world for the world of Christ.

Some might say that Elisha was also self-centered in asking for a double share of Elijah’s blessing. But the power that came from this blessing would only come if Elisha maintained his focus on God. In his statement that he found that he trusted God, Wesley realized that his focus had been on the wrong things. And, as has been said countless times before, once his focus went to working for God, the success of the Methodist Revival followed.

Like the young man of today’s Gospel reading, we need to be reminded that our focus is to the future and not to the past. We need to be reminded that a focus on Christ is central to the focus of our life.

We need to be reminded that the world around us is the place where we serve and give everything for Christ. We know that this world is not the only world there is and it is certainly not the final world. There is a future and it is found in God and we bank all our hopes and dreams on that very future. We do believe that the Messiah has come but we also know that the world where the lion lies down with the lamb, where there is no more war or injustice, where every knee bows and every tongue confesses Christ is a world that is yet to come.

We may never have enough time to accomplish what we have been asked to do and it seems that we often do not have the right solution. Often times it seems that we even lack the resources to accomplish those tasks. We are hampered by our vision of this world, our own limitations, and our own woundedness. (Adapted from material in the “Martyrs” chapter of Servants, Misfits, and Martyrs, James C. Howell)

It is times like these when we are quite willing to let others take on the task, saying that they are too great for us. It is times like these when we have to ask, “What would Jesus do?” But I already know what Jesus did and why it was done.

Jesus died on the cross so that I would not have to suffer. So the question is, was, and should always be, “what will you do?” If truth and justice depends on the mere goodness and perfection of mere mortals such as ourselves, then we are in dire straits. But if we are to strive for godliness, to be saints, if we are to bring righteousness and justice, fairness and freedom to this world, then we must act. We must be willing to look forward and not backwards; we must be willing to do things for others rather than for ourselves. If God is to be found in this world, then it is likely that He will be found in the places of suffering and sorrow, not in places of bliss and ease. And so that is where we must go.

I know that Christ died for me so that I might live. So I invite you to open your hearts and accept Christ as your Savior, knowing that is what He did for you. And I invite you, having accepted Christ as your Savior to reach out to others and invite them to come and know who Christ is. It is not what Jesus would do that you should ask today but rather what is it that I should do?

The Cost of Freedom (2001)

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This is a sermon that I gave at Walker Valley United Methodist Church for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost (1 July 2001).  The Scriptures for this Sunday were 2 Kings 2: 1 – 2, 6 – 14, Galatians 5: 1, 13 – 25, and Luke 9:  51 – 62.

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One of the songs by Crosby, Stills, and Nash opens with the line “the cost of freedom in buried in the ground.” It always seems interesting to me that each year that we celebrate our country’s independence, we often forget what this day is all about, why it was that we fought the War of Independence and what it took to gain victory. And even today, as we celebrate 225 years of independence, there are still those who feel that we do not have enough freedom and those who feel that we have too much freedom.

There are those in this country today who would tell us that we have too many freedoms and that we need to pull back and let others control what we say and do. There are those who argue just the opposite, that we do not have enough freedom to say and think and act in whatever manner we wish to choose. Still others are afraid to act, for fear of stepping on the freedoms of others.

For me, freedom is that moment when we have to face what is in front of us and take actions for ourselves. It is not unlike the moment that Elisha faced on the banks of the Jordan that day that read about in the Old Testament reading this morning or that moment when Jesus said to his followers to “Follow me.”

In each case, be it Elisha or the two followers, the moment of freedom required a choice, it required that they take action. And for a moment, each person was not immediately prepared to accept that freedom.

It can be a frightening thing to have to go out on one’s own and to do the things that others have done for you. In Elisha’s case, it was the acceptance of the role that Elijah had played. Elijah was afraid of the change. Elijah was Elisha’s mentor, prophet, teacher, and father-in-the faith. But now it was time for Elisha to move on and take charge of the ministry entrusted to him. Yet, he was afraid to do so. As the student, there was degree of comfort and a manner of protection. But as the prophet, there was no comfort, there was no protection.

It is easy to understand Elisha’s response, of not wanting to let Elijah go. Fear makes it easy to cling to the past or to familiar traditions. But that is why faith becomes so strong. While fear would have us cling to the past, faith has us look to the future.

What Elisha was most afraid of was that God would leave him, that he wouldn’t be there. In verse 14, Elisha cries out in despair and loneliness, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” And God answered with a sign of divine presence, the parting of the Jordan River so that Elisha could return home. In effect, God said to Elisha, “I never left. Life goes on. Elijah’s journey may have ended but your journey continues.”

Similarly, it is easy to understand the responses of the two individuals when Jesus asked them to follow him. It is one thing to listen to the words of the Gospel; it is an entirely different thing to follow them and carry them out. Jesus’ command to “Follow Him” means that we must walk the same path.

It means that we have to recognize that there is a purpose to life and that part of that purpose is for us to do God’s work here on earth. To follow Christ also means that we must make a commitment. The Gospel reading for today makes it clear that Jesus was committed to go into Jerusalem. As it stated in verse 51, he “set his face” firmly on that goal. It has been made clear to us countless number of times that Jesus was a person of commitment. Telling those that wish to follow him that they must give up everything was to say that they must make a commitment. In asking us to make a commitment, to choosing the path that He walked, Jesus challenges us to reach our full potential in a world that accepts mediocrity.

In writing to the Galatians, Paul spoke of freedom as a liberation of the soul. Paul pointed out that we have a choice in what we want to do, that we have a certain amount of freedom in what we say and do. And whatever it is that we do, we have to recognize the consequences of our actions. If we chose to follow the desires of our heart, we have to be prepared to accept the consequences of our actions. But if we choose to follow Christ, we not only gain liberation from sin and its domination over our lives, we gain salvation through Christ and gain the Spirit that can take us to better things.

At times, we are like Elisha, afraid to let go and letting others do our thinking for us. At times, we are like the disciples, asked to make a commitment but not willing to pay the price, not willing to truly accept the cost of freedom. What we have to realize is that God will be with us. Over and over again, we find that God has given us more that we ever thought. That is called God’s grace. The true cost of freedom is both free and beyond value when you realized that how we gained God’s grace.

New Clothes

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This is a sermon that I presented on the 8th Sunday after the Epiphany (27 February 2000) at Walker Valley United Methodist Church.  The scriptures for this Sunday were Hosea 2: 14 – 20, 2 Corinthians 3: 1 – 6, and Mark 2: 13 – 22.

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Whenever someone comes up with a new idea or proposes a change, they suggest that they are offering a new paradigm. But the word “paradigm” means more than just the presentation of a new idea or a change in the way something is done. To the best of my knowledge, the term paradigm was first used by Thomas Kuhn to explain the shift in thinking that occurs in science when the present way of thinking does not provide a reasonable explanation for the evidence that is presented.

For Kuhn, the change in the view of the world from an Aristotelian viewpoint, i.e. the earth as the center of the solar system, to the one proposed by Galileo and Copernicus where the sun was the center of the solar system was such a paradigm. The latter changes in physics by Newton and Einstein also represented such paradigm shifts. Each of these shifts or changes requires that we completely change the ways that we think, not just modify what we do.

The Gospel reading for today is the beginning of such a shift in viewpoint. First, Jesus is questioned about his association with sinners because he has chosen to eat dinner with Matthew, the tax collector who had just been chosen as one of the apostles. For the Pharisees and others who considered themselves righteous, to eat with sinners was itself a sin. But Jesus pointed out through his illustration of the physician who heals only the sick, He had come to call sinners, not the righteous to repentance. Repentance means a change of mind that recognizes the need of a Savior and recognizes Jesus Christ as the only Savior.

The second point about this shift in thinking comes from the question about fasting. Now, Jesus had given his followers guidelines about fasting during the Sermon on the Mount.

“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (Matthew 6: 16 – 18)

So Jesus was not against fasting. But since both the disciples of John the Baptizer and the Pharisees fasted, perhaps twice each week as described in Luke 18: 12, it was assumed that it was necessary for the disciples of Jesus to fast as well.

But through the parable of patching an old piece of clothing with a new piece of cloth and putting of new wine into old wineskins, Jesus was saying that the old rules could not apply. Since repentance of sins and acceptance of Jesus as the Savior was a new way of life, following the old rules could not work.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians and spoke of the Spirit and the law, he was talking about this change in the way of life. In 2 Corinthians 3: 6 Paul wrote, “who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The letter to which Paul refers is a reference to the old covenant, founded through the Ten Commandments written on stone. The letter kills because all break the law, and the penalty is death. But the new covenant through Jesus and the Holy Spirit offers us life. The comparison of cloths and wineskins was made to show that Jesus’ message was a new one and part of the new covenant and that it could not fit into the old mold of the Old Testament.

In essence, Jesus was establishing a set of new rules by which to live by rather than simply continuing trying to follow the old rules. This is what a paradigm is all about. You may have a new idea but if it is carried out within the framework of the old ways, then it isn’t really a paradigm.

I think that the reasons that the Pharisees had a problem with Jesus’ message, as some people due even today is that, they were not willing to give up the present in order to gain the future. To make a shift in thinking such as what Jesus proposed required a certain amount of trust and a willingness to give up the old ways. When Paul wrote the second letter to the Corinthians, he expressed the thought that his own trust in Christ was sufficient for what he was to do. In verse 4, the word trust comes from the Greek for confidence. Paul did not need the exterior trappings or the rigorous life that the Pharisees followed because he trusted explicitly in Christ to make his own ministry effective.

And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3: 4 – 6)

Paul placed his confidence not in himself or his own abilities but in the Lord.

The covenant that the prophet Hosea spoke of was this new covenant. In the passage from the Old Testament for today, God says to the people of Israel through Hosea that he will take away the old ways of life and make a new covenant in the world. By using the term ‘husband’ instead of ‘master’ in verse 16, “On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband’, and no longer will you call me, ‘My Baal.” God is showing that a new relationship will exist and that the old ways of living will no longer work.

As long as we continue to think in the old ways, as long as we continue to feel that the only way to salvation is through a strict adherence to the law, it will be difficult for us to understand what Jesus had to offer. To understand the new covenant requires that we shift our thinking. It may not be that we need a moment such as that day on the road to Damascus when Saul became Paul, but there will be a time, like Wesley, where we feel the Holy Spirit’s presence. We can choose to ignore that calling or we can, like Wesley, open our hearts and allow the Spirit to come in. There is a choice and it is one that only you can make.