Giving Over, Not Giving Up

John 12:20-33

Becoming a Jesus-follower does not mean losing your passions, hopes and dreams. It means that you allow God to re-purpose them, all of them. I may seem like an uncomfortable proposal but no one who has ever fully committed their life to Jesus has ever regretted the decision. Following Jesus gives you freedom like you've never had before. Giving your life over to Jesus brings peace to your spirit and joy to your heart. Being a disciple of Christ gives you a whole new perspective.

Here's an example. The NCAA Tournament: has anyone filled out a bracket? How's it going with that? Min e is terrible, let's talk about football.

Jon Pohl, High school Freshman. I weighed around 90...95 pounds tops. Gettin' ready for the first game of my High School football career. I may have shared with you before that I was not exactly a talented athlete. I spent a lot of time at football practice getting knocked around, but I was okay with that because it meant I was on the team.

The first game came and I was doing my part, standing on the sideline encouraging my teammates. We gained a significant lead so the coach put me in. I was a running back. I was in the game for 3 or 4 plays before the call from the sideline was for a play that I got to run the ball. All right. I know my rout. I have seen the other team they don't look any bigger than my teammates so they wont likely do any more damage than I have already experienced. We are playing on the game field which is softer than the practice field so hitting the ground wont hurt as much. When I get pasted I think I will be all right.

We line up for the play, the ball is snapped I take the hand off and in front of me a way opens as if the red sea was being parted. It seemed I could see for miles I couldn't believe it. Then suddenly I was on the ground and the play was over.

Monday came and the team got together to watch the game film. I was secretly distracted during all the discussion about the first 4/5ths of the game waiting to see video tape proof of my athletic glory. Then my play came up. I saw myself take the hand off. I saw the amazingly large hole that opened up before me, I saw myself run but not full speed but sort of all tense as if I was waiting to get tackled. My mindset was not hat I wanted to get as many yards down field as possible rather I already had the assumption that I was going to be stopped and was just trying to minimize the discomfort.

Remember when Peter said to Jesus that he shouldn't go to Jerusalem to die as Jesus said he must. And Jesus said “Get behind me Satan, for your mind is on earthly things not on heavenly things.”? Peter was runnin' the ball to minimize the hurt rather than trying to gain yardage.

When we become followers of Jesus, he asks us to give ourselves completely. When he called Peter and Andrew, James and John they left their boats and their work behind and followed Jesus for probably three years.

They had simple lives. They knew their work. They fished. They sold the fish. They lived on what they earned. They followed Jesus and things changed. They lived with purpose. How could anyone endure what they endured and how could they tell the story that we have today in Holy Scriptures unless Jesus was exactly who he said he was.

On the day that Jesus called his disciples, it may have appeared that they were giving up their lives. That they were actually losing something. But in reality they were gaining everything. It took them a while to get it but then it takes us all a while to get it even when we have it here in black and white and we have 2000 years of church history to support this truth.

The problem is that we often face life with the perspective that we are giving up something rather than giving over to something. There are many of you who have been through some pretty serious challenges in your lifetimes. You have been challenged spiritually, emotionally and physically. But you have made it through. You have endured the worst events of your life and you are here to worship God. Today is a good day. However There is someone that is probably sitting near you this morning that is about to go though one of those challenges or is in the midst of one right now. So what I want you to do is to turn to the person on your right and then to your left. Then if there is someone in front of you or behind you I want you to tell them that they are going to make it through. Go ahead and do that now.

We find ourselves dealing with all kinds of unexpected challenges and obstacles. The challenge and the obstacle is the path that we are on. We should travel that path well.

In the Gospel Lesson today the path that Jesus was on was not an attractive one. But he knew he had to travel it.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” “Now my heart it troubled, And what should I say-'Father, save me from this hour?' No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.”

Jesus knew that the path before him as difficult and undesirable as it was, was the right way to go. He knew that when he would be executed by the Romans that his death would mean defeat to the Adversary and would also draw all people to him.

Jesus has won the victory. In Jesus there is no division. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). So in the big game of life we are about to get the hand off. The thing is the game is already won. If the game is already won that means that doesn't mean that god picked a winner and a loser among us. Jesus says in our scripture today that, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.” and just because the victory has been won doesn't mean that God wants us to give up. We are still getting the ball on the next play and we still need to get it down the field. The question is are we going to give up trying because not everyone knows we are on the same team and we might get smeared.? Are we going to give up because we know that the victory is won? Or are we going to be faithful and obedient and strive to the best of our talents and ability to follow God through what ever may come?

So we need not strive against one another but rather we need to convince everybody that we are indeed on the same team.  We do that by continually proclaiming the Good News about Jesus Christ.  

So how is it with you today, knowing that, come what may, Jesus has already won the victory and our task is to give over our lives to the One that loves us.  

Seeking the Light

I usually post my sermon manuscripts however, this is a slightly edited transcript of the sermon I delivered on Sunday, March 18, 2012.

John 3:14-21

21 years ago I was taking a math class at Ferris State University. My professors name was Dr. *****. I assumed that he was like most other teachers I have had in my life and that this math class was like most other math class I have had, that is, the material is presented, tests were given and grades were assigned. Well I found that this professor was a bit different. I found this out when I was taking a quiz in his class. You see I am no math wiz. Math doesn't come easily to me. This was at least the second time I had taken this introductory level math course and I was really struggling with this quiz. I had got a couple of the answers right but I got most of them wrong. I got up, put the quiz on his desk and started to leave. I got nearly to the door when he stopped me. I went back and he showed me where I got stuck on the first problem I got wrong. So I reworked the problem. Then he showed me my mistake on the second and all through the quiz until the whole thing was corrected. I got 10 out of 10 on that quiz because he let me re-work all my answers. I thought, “wow, I can really work with this guy.” Now at exam time at the end of the year, for what ever reason the final test is not the same day and hour as the time you normally have your class time. It's all different. So somehow someway, I got confused, and I missed my final exam. I just forgot about it. I didn't even remember that I forgot it, I just moved on. So I left that summer, for Georgia, to serve in the Army. Mid way through the summer down there I got a call from my professor. He said, “Jon, you forgot to take your test.” Do you want to retake it.” I said I can't I'll be in Georgia all summer. He said, “Well, when you get back next fall just come to my office and take it. So that fall I took the test, did alright on it and passed the class. I was amazed at his compassion. He didn't want me to fail. He gave me every opportunity to succeed. I could have ignored his call. I could have blown off the opportunity to take the test again. But why would I?

God so loved the world that he gave his only son...not to condemn the world. Jesus came to love the world.

God cannot be put into a box. God cannot be reduced to a set of rules. God cannot be summarized by set of concepts. God cannot be contained by our own ideas. God is a living God. God may not act in a way that we expect God to act. Because God isn't just a concept.

In the scriptures of the old testament there are many things that God does and commands others to do that we wouldn't guess that God would do. Some have taken to believe that in these cases the prophets of the Old Testament got it wrong? But I have to ask them, What if they really got it right? What if those difficult passages in the Old Testament and our understanding of an all loving God can and should co-exist?

At the very least we would have to admit that God, sometimes, acts in unexpected ways? So what if God doesn't conform to the way that you think that God should act?

God is bigger than our idea of Him.

We may want God to be this or to be that. But God will be who God is.

If we have understanding, the truth is the truth. If we don't understand the truth is still the truth. It doesn't depend on us.

My brother with his little girl at his surprise birthday party.  This pic was
taken by his wife Holly.  

On Saturday I was at my brothers house, it was his birthday. He was a St. Patrick Day baby. My brother and I are very close. We could go months between visits and we could just pick up just as if we had seen each other the day before. The thing is that he and I are so much alike. There is nothing that he could say that would surprise me. Any opinion or idea that he has, just as easily could have come out of my mouth. We're very close. To say that we are close is not even a shadow of a glimpse of the closeness of the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit because they are one. Yes, they are separate but they are of the same essence. When one person of the trinity says something, the other two are in complete agreement at all times. And so, when God the Father saw that humanity was lost, he sent Jesus (God the son) so that he could be right there with us.

The rules, according to human understanding were that, if you follow God's law, things would be okay. And if you didn't follow God's law, you would be punished.

God saw that things were going astray, things for humanity were going bad. God saw that humanity needed him and perhaps now they could also see it as well. And so God the Son took on the flesh of humanity. He took on our weakness, he took on our vulnerability all while having the same essence of God the Father. That was unexpected.

He did that as an act of love. He didn't want to see us fail anymore. He didn't want to see us suffer. He didn't want to see us stumble around in the dark anymore. He wanted to bring us light. He wanted to bring us into his light.

God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that who ever would believe in him would have eternal life.

God did not come to condemn the world. God has not pronounced condemnation. God has not pushed anyone out. God has not chosen some while leaving others out. Humanity was already in trouble. Humanity was already stumbling around in the dark. We were already lost. That's why the Father sent Jesus. Jesus arrival in history for humanity was the most loving act that God could do. We have the choice to accept that love, to step into that light or to stay in the dark.

We all need the light of Christ. We all need regeneration. Not one of us is good enough on our own. We all need what Jesus has to offer. When we accept the light of Christ and live in that light, the fruit will be a transformed world and a transformed life for ourselves.

So how is it with you today?

Are you letting the light of Jesus grow inside you?

John Carter or Gordon from Sesame Street?

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where this is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled
as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

This is the Prayer of St. Francis. It is a prayer of surrender. Not giving up, but giving yourself over completely to the will of God so that God can use you the way God designed you.

God loves your uniqueness, your “one-of-a-kind-ness.” each one of you has been gifted with your own set of talents and inclinations. God simply asks that you use those to love God and others.

Alex and I at Big Rapids 1st United Methodist Church

I was in Big Rapids yesterday for the “Bishop's Day” conference. During the opening worship I noticed a couple of the musicians, as well as a few members of the congregation had one or both hands in the air, moving in a pulsing motion that went along with the lyrics of the song. They had their eyes closed, and it looked like they were experiencing something that I was not. Not only was I not feeling the music as they were I found that I was caught up in analyzing what was happening rather than sing at all. This has always been my struggle. Methodist are known for their great music and here I am a pastor in the church and what I feel doesn't match the look on those worshipers faces. I ask myself: what am I missing. Then I came across an article about a woman named Agnes (Leadership Journal, Fall 2011. Dark Nights of the Soul. When God seems far away. Spiritual thermometers and prayer in the darkness by John Ortberg).

“From the time she was a young girl, Agnes believed . Not just believed: she was on fire. She wanted to do great things for God. She said things such as she wanted to “love Jesus as he has never been loved before.”

Agnes had an undeniable calling. She wrote in her journal that “my soul at present is in perfect peace and joy.” she experienced a union with God that was so deep and so continual that it was to her a rapture. She left her home. She became a missionary. She gave him everything.

And then he left her.

At least that's how it felt to her. Where is my faith?” She asked. “Deep down there is nothing but emptiness and darkness...My God, how painful is this unknown pain..I have no faith.”

She struggled to pray: I utter word of community prayers- and try my utmost to get out of every word the sweetness it has to give. But my prayer of union is not there any longer. I no longer pray.”

She still worked, still served, still smiled. But she spoke of the smile as her mask, “a cloak that covers everything.” This is the way it was for 50 years. We know Agnes as Mother Teresa.

The point worship in not necessarily to feel something. Though if you do feel something, that's great. But getting something is not our purpose here. Mother Teresa served God and humanity with great love, all the while longing for a knowledge of the presence of God which she did not feel. The point of worship is to honor God; to be in the presence of God; to surrender oneself to the glory of God; to love God. Then to respond to God's great love by going back out into the world using your unique, God given design to love your neighbors.

These are the commands of God.

Love God. Love your neighbors. That's nice isn't it? That's something you could teach on Sesame Street aside from the God part that is. Remember Sesame street? I do because I have a two -year-old in the house and he really likes Sesame Street. Remember Gordon, the bald headed fellow? He is still on. He was on when I was a kid. He is there to help understand concepts like sharing and compromise. Gordon is great but my older kids are no longer interested in Sesame street. They like a little more action. There is a Disney movie out right now called John Carter. Its a movie based on a series of science fiction books written in the early 1900's. The title character John Carter isn't so much like Gordon on Sesame street with the compromise and the sharing. John Carter is the “ has what it takes to get the job done,” kind of guy. He is a civil war veteran who masters the ability to teleport himself to the Planet Mars where the reduced gravity gives him relative super strength and so he becomes a hero fighting the bad guys.

So here's the question? If you grew up coming to church. Was the message to be more like Gordon from Sesame Street or more like John Carter?

In the Gospel Lesson today Jesus went to the temple. The Temple you remember, the place where people go to show God that they love God, the place where those who want to be close to God go. Because that is what God wants, right? God wants people to love him. God wants us to use the gifts, talents and personality traits to love him and to others. And so the temple was the place that was designed for this purpose. People came from miles around. Jesus came to the temple and found people not with their hearts set on loving god but rather they were selling animals and changing money. They were profiting from the worshipers. Even worse than that. They were standing in the way of people loving god. They were the gateway that all must pass through. They had to have the “right' animal. They had to have the “right” kind of money for the temple treasury.

Jesus got a little excited. He made a whip and drove the animals out. He knocked over the tables of the money changers.

Sounds like Jesus got angry. Sounds like Jesus is the “ has what it takes to get the job done,” kind of guy. But that's not all that Jesus was. We don't read in this account or in any account that Jesus ever hurt any one. This is no advocacy of violence. There are times when Jesus was gentle and compassionate. There were times when Jesus was stern and direct. There were times when Jesus felt at one with the Father in heaven and there was at least one time when he felt that the Father had left him. But through everything Jesus, gave of himself for the singular purpose that people. You and I can freely come to the throne of God with confidence. There is no barrier. There are no obstacles. With Jesus there is freedom. We are free to be the people that we have been created to be.

This statue is in Big Rapids, MI.  Shaw is an important
figure in Methodism.  The plaque shown below
Doesn't do justice to the extraordinary person she is.  

So How is it with you today? There are lots of ways to be other than Gordon from Sesame Street or John Carter. The point is to be exactly who God created you to be so that God is honored for who God is.  

Tired of the Weird

Life is weird. The most mundane things we do, when taken to an extreme, can suddenly seem pretty foreign for example: signing your name is a pretty normal thing. I signed papers to give permission to the public school to talk to my kids about sex education; I sent papers that acknowledge that I have seen my kids report card as well as the disciplinary report from school. Just last week I signed my tax returns which required at least a half-dozen signatures. Permission slips, I sign a ton of those. I sign papers at the Dr.'s office where I believe we should get a punch card so that we can get some sort of prize to fill it up. With six kids there are a lot of trips to the doctor. It seems that somebody is always asking me to sign something.
Conversations. conversations are good, normal and healthy. Communication is vital to relationships and to mutual understanding on multiple levels. I have lots of conversations from discussions on philosophy and theology with my 15-year-old to conversations about an impending BM with my two year old. I have conversations about what is appropriate behavior, conversations about human nature, conversations about the motives of the boy on the bus who won't leave my son alone and whose mother doesn't want my son to sit next to her son. conversations with my wife are generally logistical in nature. i.e. Who will deliver what kid to this or that event? Then at the end of the night we turn the lights off, fall sleep and start again the next day.
Sometimes the "weirdness" of life can be tiring. I find myself stopping and saying to myself, "really? This is really happening?" Then I shake my head in disgust with myself for being surprised by anything anymore.
Occasionally I remember to stop, to pause and take stock to become aware, again, of God's presence. I am rediscovering the wonderful range of emotions and states of being found in the Psalms. in Psalm 46 it says he (God) makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the shields with fire. be still and know that I am God.

All In

Mark 8:31-38

Don't put all of your eggs into one basket. That's wisdom that makes some sense. If you collect a basket full of eggs and you drop the eggs, the eggs break, then you don't have any eggs!

The saying “don't put all of your eggs” is used to refer to situations other than that of collecting eggs from your chickens. It can refer to a course of action that you put all of your resources into following. If it fails you lose everything. This is of course the opposite of the phase and idea of going “all in.”

All in is a poker term meaning that you bet everything on the hand of cards you are currently holding. It says you are so sure of what you have that you are willing to stake everything on it.

Now I have to admit I know little to nothing about poker. My dad taught me how to play when I was about 12 years old and I have long since forgot how to play. As for making bets and wagers the closest I come to that is watching Jeopardy on T.V. But I have to say that I am an “all in” kind of guy.

It may take me a while to make a move or to come to a decision but when I do I like to follow that course of action to its destination. Commitment and loyalty are important to me. Diane and I were committed to keeping three siblings together when we were considering adoption, then a fourth sibling came our commitment remained the same...keep the family together. And so we are walking that path through all the experiences that that commitment has started.

They say don't “put all your eggs in one basket.” “Don't go all in.” I say if you have two baskets, then you have doubled your chances of losing half your eggs. All In? There is something about a shared fate.

When a family, be it a nuclear family or a church family or the human family chooses together, a course of action and commits to it in unity there is strength in enduring what may come. There will always be challenges. There will always be bumps in the road. But when you are “all in” you are invested. When you are “all in,” you find ways to overcome challenges. When you are “all in” you can also make the mistake of narrowing your vision too much.

The question has to be for us: what are we willing to go “all in” for? Some folks, especially now as we are in presidential campaign season are willing to go “all in” for a political party. Some folks go all in on a particular issue.

What do you go “all in” for? Anything?

During this season of Lent we as the community of Christians have committed to introspection, to fasting and self-denial and to considering our own mortality. It is a season of pairing down. It is a season of removing the unnecessary from our lives, of reminding ourselves what is really important and what we truly are willing to go “all in” for.

I was so encouraged this week when I got a call from someone who had a vision for God will for that persons life. It is a grand vision with no clear answer as to how to get there but it is certainly something that will be a conduit for the love of God.

The ministries of this church reach out to so many people. The meals that you provide directly at the community kitchen, and the ones that you provide indirectly with your gifts to the Haiti Hot Lunch program make an actual physical difference in peoples lives. That is something to get behind. But God may be calling you do do something else. As wonderful as the ministries of this church are, there is something in your heart that is growing, something that God planted there. Nurture it, explore it, and share it. Because there are lots of people with lots of gifts waiting to waiting to use them to serve God. And your vision may be the one that God is calling us to go all in for.

In the scripture lesson today Jesus was telling his disciples that he was going all in. He was saying that he was going to suffer and he was going to be killed. Jesus was telling them that the course of action that he was taking would surely lead to these things. He was willing to go through all this because of his love for us. He was willing to sacrifice his comfort and his life so that those that follow him can have eternal life. The bumps on the road were pretty big to say the least but, to Jesus, they were worth it because of what the result would be.

Peter couldn't see the big picture. Why go through all that? Why go through the trouble? Why go through the pain? Why put yourself in a position like that? Why would you want to leave us? Peter loved Jesus. Peter certainly did not want Jesus to suffer or die. I am guessing that the rest of Jesus' disciples felt the same way but Peter was the only one with the guts to say it to Jesus.

He said it to Jesus privately. He took Jesus aside to have this one on one conversation to get Jesus to reconsider. But Jesus turned and answered him by speaking to all the disciples and the crowd. If any of you wants to be my follower you must put aside you selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for your self, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life.

So what do we go “all in” for? Jesus said it should not be anything that is for selfish ambition or to keep the life or lifestyle that we have carved out for ourselves. But we should go all in for the burden that Jesus lays on us. To be his disciple means we follow him without reservation using the gifts he has given us to honor God.

Jesus said to Peter “get behind me Satan!” because Peter was acting as an adversary. Peter was thinking selfishly. Peter was trying to divide his eggs between a few different baskets.

When it comes to following Jesus, he wants us to be “all in," bumps and all.  

The time did come for Jesus to suffer and he did die and on the third day he rose again defeating the power of death for ever. On the night before he died he took bread and broke it...