Be Free!

Luke 13:10-17

I have made lots of mistakes.  And it’s a good thing too because that is how we learn right?  We venture out into the unknown and we try new things. Sometimes we get lucky and it works out a lot of the time we suffer the consequences of our decisions and we grow and learn. 

This is our path through life. We experience things and we grow.  God has given us this creation to care for and to enjoy.  However this creation that we have been given to care for and to enjoy is a broken and dangerous place.  The perfection of the heavenly realm is not matched by the earthly realm.  Though the perfection of Jesus is given to those who trust in him, we remain imperfect broken people. 

And so this is our path through life with God.  We Experience things, we listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And as we are obedient, we are made to look more and more like the way God first intended.  This process is called sanctifying grace. Sanctify, meaning “to make holy,” and grace meaning God’s favor that we cannot earn. Or “Love.”  So sanctifying grace is “God’s love that makes us holy.”

But we still make mistakes. We all fall short.  We may be perfected in love but I have yet to meet someone who is perfected in word, action and thought.  Let Share with you one of my mistakes.  This is the worst thing I have ever said to a church person.  I said, “So, you want to be a tramp?”

Pretty bad huh?

Now let me give you the context. I am person that likes to use accurate words.  I may not have the largest vocabulary in the room but I like to know that the words I am using are the right words.  If I am using a word incorrectly I like to know about it so I can correct it.

Let me tell you about Helen, the person to whom I said that awful sounding statement.   Helen was a gem.  She was a woman in a church that I served before I came to be pastor here at St. Paul.  Helen was the voice of reason.  When there was disagreement or discord of any kind she offered kindness and perspective. Helen had a calm and measured demeanor.  Helen had a smile that could instantly warm your heart.  Early on in my ministry there I visited her in the hospital because she was going to have some minor procedure done.  I was in the waiting room with her two sisters, who lived in other towns and attended different churches, during most of the afternoon.  I hadn’t said much to the sisters beyond the initial introduction before one of them started telling me how awful her pastor was.  She was so impressed that I was wearing a tie because her pastor wears Hawaiian shirts and shorts to worship. On and on she went.

Helen later heard from her other sister about this conversation and was an ongoing joke between her and me over the next few years that I was there.

Helen’s health declined.  She suffered from lymphoma.  She had a hard time making it to church so I would go a visit with her in her home.  When it got really bad I visited her in the hospital.  She lost so much weight.  But she still smiled.  She still had a positive outlook.  The folk from the church came to say goodbye because it seemed that her time on this earth was almost done.  She held on. Then she started gaining some weight back.  Then she started gaining some strength back. Then she was strong enough to be able to be cared for at her daughter’s home. After several weeks she was strong enough to live at her own home.  A few weeks after that she started coming to church again and washing dishes at the monthly pancake suppers. 

We were so glad to see her back at the pancake suppers.  She always decorated her hat to match the season and she always had a smile to warm your heart. 

I visited her at her home.  And she shared with me a desire that she had in her heart for a long time.  She said that she wished she could just sell everything she owned and be free to travel from place to place and to see the world without any worry about what she may have left behind.  Now think Disney.  Think Lady and the tramp.  Lady was the dog that lived in the people’s house with comfort and also with restrictions.  Tramp was the dog that had freedom but lived a life of danger.  When I said “so, you want to be a tramp,” this is what I meant:  Someone who travels by foot from town to town. 

I heard the words come out of my mouth and I immediately perceived that they may be taken in a way that I didn’t intend.  But she understood. 

Helen had in her a desire for freedom.  She wanted freedom from material, earthly things.  She wanted to be able to appreciate this life God has given her as it came to her, or rather, as she went out to meet it.   

Helen died a few months after I left.  She has found the ultimate freedom.

Helen had the desire for freedom that is in all of us.  That desire may not come out of us as a desire to sell everything and travel. But Jesus said He came to set the prisoners free.  I don’t think he meant just those who were locked in a cage. We can all be imprisoned in illusions of this world. We can be imprisoned in the distractions that we give ourselves over to.  We can be imprisoned by worry and guild and shame.

In the scripture today Jesus was teaching in a synagogue.  A woman came in with a spirit of weakness, or a spirit that crippled her.  She suffered from it for 18 years.  There are a lot of people who like to try to explain the miracles of Jesus by putting it in modern terms. Some say it was a psychological problem some say moral problem, But whatever the diagnosis, the woman was suffering for 18 years and found healing in Jesus Christ.

The woman was bent over, she couldn’t stand up.  She was bent over she must have had her eyes continually cast down ward. Her life was her disease. 

Eli needed to stop and smell the flowers at the super-mart. 

She came to the synagogue downcast and a prisoner but she left the synagogue that day praising god.

Her life her identity was changed in the encounter with Jesus.   And all the Pharisees could do was to cite the law and to criticize Jesus. 

They were just as much prisoners as the woman was.  Her prison was her disease.  The Pharisee’s prison was their religious rules. 

My friend Helen wasn’t much for religious rules but she loved Jesus.  Her love for Jesus was manifest in her compassion.  She didn’t much of an opinion about how communion should be served or weather the pastor wears Hawaiian shirts or a robe. 

When we come before Jesus, there will be all sorts of people ready to tell us what the rules are.  In fact I have a big brown book that the United Methodist Church calls the Book of Discipline.  It’s how we are organized and it’s a summary of what we believe.  It is easy, like the Pharisees to be distracted by the rules.  It is easy to mistake the journey for the destination.  It’s easy to mistake church activity for a relationship with God.  When we come before Jesus, resist the distractions.  Resist those who have been imprisoned and want you to join them in their imprisonment. When we come before Jesus we should expect to be transformed.  When we come before Jesus we should expect to experience God’s love that makes us better than we have ever been before, whatever that looks like.

So, how is it with you today on your spiritual journey?  The destination that we are continually striving for and are continually arriving at is being in loving relationship with Almighty God through Jesus Christ. 

This Dollar

I just found this dollar folded into a tiny square in the pocket of a pair of shorts I haven't worn since last summer. 

A dollar isn't much, but it is a dollar more than I thought I had. Had I never found it I wouldn't have missed it. Now the question is: What to do with it?

I could put it with the rest of my dollars in my wallet and spend it without a thought. 

I could put it in the cup I keep for those who call me for emergency assistance.

I could buy something for someoneto brighten   their day. 

I could try to buy something and sell it for more to make a prophet. 

This is a bonus dollar; an unexpected dollar. 

What do you think I should do with it? 

Comment below.

As Big As Your Head

Luke 12:49-56

Family camp is coming up.  By fire my favorite part of camp is sitting around the campfire having conversations with people, watching the fire grow and diminish with each new piece of wood.  Watch the embers glow and at the end of the night watching the light fade.  To start a fire (and this is where the title of the message came from) I have been advised to start with a pile of tinder that is as big as your head. That way there is enough heat to light the bigger sticks you add to that the fire has the best chance of getting the fire going.

Jesus said, “I came to bring fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled.” I have to admit that this is tough scripture.  I struggled with this text this week.  What is this fire? 

It is about destruction of the earth like we read in Rev 8:8? The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea.

Is the fire of final judgment like we read about in Rev 20:14? Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

Is fire meant to inspire as the Apostle Peter intends when he gave the very first Christian sermon in Acts 2

“‘In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

A barley field just before harvest. 

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.
¹⁸ Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
    and they will prophesy.
¹⁹ I will show wonders in the heavens above
    and signs on the earth below,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke. “

Whatever fire Jesus is referring to, acknowledges if not intends to use that fire to draw distinctions and separate people. 

I realize that separating people does not jive with our modern way of thinking.  We think that we should all get along at all costs.  But Jesus often talks about divisions: The parable of the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the weeds, the grain and the chaff, the tree that bears fruit and the one that needs to be taken down because it does not bear fruit.  Jesus asks, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to eh earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” What are these divisions?  What is this fire? He said, “I came to bring fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled.”

I don’t think it’s literally ‘fire on the earth.’ I mean, I don’t think Jesus is out starting brush fires or burning down buildings.  Although there was that one bush that Moses saw. 

When Moses had run away to go in to hiding. He was raised as a prince. He was raised with privilege.  He never went hungry but he killed a man and ran away. He got married to a farmer’s daughter and was living a good life.  He was probably content. But one day he was out in the field with the sheep when he saw a bush that was on fire, but the thing is, the bush was not being consumed by the fire. So Moses went over to the bush to get a closer look because this is a very strange occurrence, but something even stranger happened next.  The voice of God called Moses.  The voice of God that called to Moses didn’t make a bunch of lofty pronouncements and theological…things.  God explained that he had seen how miserable his chosen people, the Hebrews, were in Egypt, Where they were being held as slaves. Scripture says “God had come down from heaven to rescue them. He picked Moses to carry out that task.”

So God picked Moses to free his people from slavery.  And the people were indeed freed from slavery.  He used Moses to do it.  Is that the whole story?  Did Moses just head back into Pharaoh’s chamber and say hey brother, God sent me.  God said let the Hebrew slaves go.  And that was that?  No, there was much resistance to Moses.  There were many trials and difficulties for Moses and the Hebrew people as they were trying to find their freedom.  There was even resistance from some of the Hebrew slaves to the whole process. They had to get past themselves.  They had to get past the way that they had been conditioned to think for hundreds of years.  A life of slavery was all they knew it was all their grandparents and their grandparents ever knew.  The situation required a movement of God in people’s lives and God started with Moses.

God got through to Moses.  He was a prince.  He became a shepherd.  God revealed his presence in the appearance of a burning bush.  Moses had to get through all the layers of social necessity and conditioned responses and prejudices to become the person God intended him to be.

How many layers of necessity and conditioned response and prejudice does God have to burn away in your life before you can be available to hear what God would have you do?

I’m not talking about a self-help program where you can feel good about yourself.  I am talking about getting yourself out of the way so that you can be an instrument in the hand of God.

It is our inflated sense of “self” that gets in the way of noticing God in our world.  You know what the term is when we have an inflated sense of self; it’s called “having a big head.”

A good word to illustrate this is “Hubris.”  Hubris means having excessive pride or self-confidence.  Hubris is thinking that you can ride a bike for 8 hours when the longest you have ever ridden is an hour and a half.  Hubris is thinking that it can be done without training. Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Was it my pride, my ego, by hubris, my “big head” that thought I could do it without more rigorous training?  Probably. But remember what I said about starting a fire.  You need a pile of kindling the size of your head to get a good fire going.  The good fire in your spirit is the one that removes distractions, gets you past social necessity, and gives you the ability to rise above your conditions responses to hear God’s call in your life.

My “Big Head” about this bike ride provided a lot of kindling for the fire that would consume the distractions in my spirit. http://ow.ly/24L3ZL 

I learned a few things on my bike ride.  I learned that I need to learn win at HORSE. 

I learned, or was reminded that even when I doubt myself that my wife is a great encourager.  I learned that I am surrounded by a loving community.  And most importantly I learned that it’s not about me it’s about how God wants to use me.  It’s about How God wants to use you.

Hebrews 12:25-29

²⁵ See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? ²⁶ At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”²⁷ The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for our “God is a consuming fire.”

So how is it with you today?  What does the fire of God have to consume in you to set you on the path that he has always intended for you?

Would you pray with me? 

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Sounds from Sunday morning by WestSidePreacher

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The Abyss

Luke 12:32-40

23 years ago, just a week before Saddam Hussein ordered the Iraqi army to invade Kuwait which sparked operation Desert Storm; I graduated from Army Basic Training at Fort Sill Oklahoma.  Back then we trained as if the Russians were still our biggest threat.  We had went out and dug fox holes and stayed up all night staring into the darkness of the Oklahoma landscape watching for an imagined enemy we knew wouldn’t come. 

Fatigued from training in the hot Oklahoma summer sun only to be chilled by the rapid drop in temperature that happens at night caused that night operation to be very difficult to stay awake through.  A drill sergeant made the occasional rounds to make sure no one was sneaking a nap. Fear of being caught was a motivation for some for staying alert.  But staring into nothingness; into a void is exhausting.  When there is nothing to look at, you can imagine anything that may be out there.  Or you can pretend there is nothing at all.

The Darkness:  Darkness is all through the Bible. Genesis 1:2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

In the creation story in the bible God began ordering the world.  On the fourth day God dealt with the darkness.  And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶ God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.

Notice that God did not remove the darkness but gave the light as a gift to the earth.  The removal of darkness is to come later.

Darkness is the absence of light.  The light is the gift of God.  Physical light is a metaphor for the presence of God with us.  We can sit in the mid-day sun and be filled with darkness if we do not know God.

But as for me (Says the prophet Micah), I watch in hope for the Lord,
    I wait for God my Savior;
    my God will hear me.

⁸ Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
    Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
    the Lord will be my light.
⁹ Because I have sinned against him,
    I will bear the Lord’s wrath,
until he pleads my case
    and upholds my cause.
He will bring me out into the light;
    I will see his righteousness.

God has chosen to plead our case.  God does indeed uphold our cause.  Through Jesus Christ he has brought us into the light and in Him we can see his righteousness.  But some choose to remain in darkness. 

God’s glory fills the earth.  God has blessed all of creation and has said that it is good.  Yet God’s existence is denied. Darkness!

God has written his law on the hearts of his people, yet evil remains and atrocities are committed. Darkness!

Even when some light breaks through, we still tend to sit in partial darkness.  13 and a half years ago God woke me from my sleepy life and led me to serve him.  I got a glimpse of God’s light and it made me unable to be content with anything less. 

When I catch myself complaining; when I have feelings of dissatisfaction I remind myself that it is the darkness that I am looking at and not the light.  When we concentrate on the darkness we imagine things that may or not be there.  When we concentrate on the light all we want to do is peal back more of the darkness so that we can see more light.

This is what it is to have God’s kingdom come.  To have God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven.  The Apostle John was in exile on the island of Patmos in the Mediterranean Sea when he had a vision of this ultimate reality. “ ³ No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”

When we stare into the darkness of the Abyss, into the unknown we have to have faith in God when we don’t know what may be out there. It’s about a leap of faith, it’s about being prepared, and it’s about trusting God. 

When I was out there on the Oklahoma landscape keeping watch, I knew that it was training.  I knew that the Russians were not going to be there that night.  But I trained as if my fellow soldiers’ life depended on my staying awake and alert. WE are called to be prepared; to keep our lamps lit; to keep vigilant and ready.

Yes, there will come a time where there will be no more night, but not yet. 

Yes, there will be a time when Jesus returns and will make all things new but not yet.

So is that where we are left?  Are we in our foxholes string into the darkness waiting until the end of time for Jesus to return?  Are we called, as a people of God, to just hold on and wait? 

IN the Gospel lesson the servants were waiting for the master.  They were to keep their lamps lit and themselves girded. 

Let’s be clear the master, our master is God. Is this a story about waiting for the end times?  Just holding on until the darkness passes?  Is that message consistent with the rest of scripture?  Does Jesus tell his people to hide out? To Wait.  Or does Jesus continually call his disciple to action? 

Jesus will come again and make all things new we believe this but God comes to us time and again and expects us to be ready to serve.

Be girded and have your candle lit. What does this mean?

The psalmist in psalm 119 writes:

How sweet are your words to my taste,
    sweeter than honey to my mouth!
¹⁰⁴ I gain understanding from your precepts;
    therefore I hate every wrong path.

¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp for my feet,
    a light on my path.

It is the word of God that is our lamp.  It is the proclamation of the things God has done and commanded that dispel the darkness.  But notice Jesus words in the parable.  He doesn’t tell a story of keeping a lamp lit for the master’s return; he uses the plural lamps. Each one of us has to keep our lamp lit.  We each are commanded to be prepared, that is, recognize what God has done so that we can recognize what God is doing in the present. 

Jesus is the light.  Jesus came into the world to dispel the darkness.  The light of Jesus will never go out.  But we, the ones in whom the light resides, can allow ourselves to be overcome by the darkness.  We have to daily choose to participate in the light.

Imagine a school custodian that comes in and turns on the light.  The room illuminates.  The light is on.  Then she notices one of the bulbs is burnt out.  She doesn’t say “Oh, that was my favorite bulb.” No she gets a new one and goes on.  (Joseph Campbell Transformations of myth through time.)

We are the lights plural because we choose to submit to Jesus Christ as our Lord, because we have believed that he is the Son of God and that he died and was raised from the dead.  This is what God has called us to be.  The lights (plural) that shine for the light of the world (Jesus).  The story does not refer to keeping a single lamp as if we are servants sitting around a table waiting for something to happen.  We each have our own lamp lit so that we can go about the preparations necessary for the return of the Master.  It is a picture of activity not of passivity.  We are a people that should be about doing not waiting. 

Jesus also says to gird yourselves.  This is another way of saying “be prepared.”  They wore robes much like this one back then and they would be a hindrance to active motion.  So they would pull up the material into the belt to be free to move quickly.

Later the Apostle Paul would talk about a belt that might give some insight here as well.  He said, “¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.”

Belt of truth he calls it.  Having the truth wrapped around you helps you to stand your ground and to stand firm. 

So not only can we face the unknown we can face what is evil in this world. 

I tell you! Anyone who says that the Christian life is boring isn’t doing it right. 

So, how is it with you today?  Have you lived out your call to be prepared?  We don’t know when the Second Coming will be but we know that God comes to us and calls us to action in many different ways.  Will you be ready when the master calls on you?  

The Good Life

            Does someone have a pencil or pen?  How about some paper? I want to make a list.

Tell me: What is the good stuff of life?  What are the things that make life worth living?  What are the things that make this life beautiful? 

            Now think about this:  you are at a garage sale, or better yet an estate sale.  Someone is selling everything that has been accumulated over a lifetime.  People mill about.  People pick through the stuff, the stuff that was once the valued possession of someone else.  People haggle you down from a dollar to gets some item for 50 cents instead.  That stuff that is treated with mild interest at best, and with contempt at worst, represents what someone wanted to spend their resources on.  Someone worked hard, was paid for their efforts, and the items at an estate sale are all that remains.  What story would your estate sale tell about your life?  Is there anything that you could sell at an estate sale that would also go on that list that we made before?

            Have you seen that new couple in town? His name is John or Joe or something.  It seems that he had to leave where he was from and is now here.  He is looking or has a new job but it hasn’t paid him yet.  He has a wife and I think a little boy.  They seem nice enough, but clearly they are not from here.  I wonder if anyone has helped them out yet. 

            It’s gotta be tough when you are a refugee in a foreign country, especially when the king of your home country wants to kill your son.  But that’s the situation they find themselves in.  And now they are here with us, in Egypt.  What was Israel’s problem is now ours.  It would be one thing if Joe had a job and would provide for himself and his family but he doesn’t.  It’s sad that his wife Mary and child have to suffer.  I wonder if anyone has helped them out yet.

            I hear that the King of their homeland has died and they are able to finally leave our country and go back to where they came from. I guess they are small town folk from a little place called Nazareth.   They have a little place up by a lake, it a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee. It’s a good thing they are going back to where they come from.  Usually people like that don’t amount to much. I mean, their little boy, Jesus: What chance does he have of doing anything meaningful? They say they are trusting God.  I hope God will provide.  I wonder if anyone has helped them out while they were in our midst.

            Do you trust your grain or your God?

            Do you trust your 401k or that foreign baby that is the hope of all human kind?

            Do you trust investments or the invisible God who was made visible in Christ Jesus?

            Do you trust in your union or your Unity with Christ?

            That is the question that Jesus confronts us with in the text today. 

(The Foolish Landowner)

The rich man thought he had security.  He produced abundantly and thought that his first thought when he saw his bounty was not to help those in need.  His first thought was that he could stop working and live off what had been produced.  Unfortunately he died that very same night. 

This is not a parable about the wrath of God on us when we have selfish motivation it is about the state of our soul when we are not aligned with God’s will. At the end of the parable God asks the foolish one “And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” or another way to put it.  Okay you have accumulated all this stuff, when you die it’s all going in the garage sale. People are going to pick through it and offer have of what it’s worth. Is that what life is all about?  Is life about the accumulation of stuff?  Or is it about the stuff on that list? 

So we ought to be about God’s will

 What is God’s will?

The prophet Mica said that the Lord requires that we “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.”

Or how about the New Testament?  Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah and said the words in it were fulfilled in him.  Jesus said “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”

Jesus told the parable about the rich landowner to demonstrate the foolishness of that mindset.  The mindset that says you can achieve security through possessions.  It demonstrates that no matter how much you have you will still come to the end of this mortal life.  And when you come to the end of this mortal life will you have a barn of grain or will you have a lifetime of the good things on the list we made.  Jesus told this parable and is a great lesson for us, but Jesus also told this parable in response to a specific question.  A man in the crowd said to him, “teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” and he said to THEM, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

            The man may have been justified in his claim on his inheritance.  The man was not acting improperly to ask a rabbi to settle a dispute, but Jesus saw past all the surface details of the situation and saw the root of the problem.  The conversation with the man when from being a private one, to being a lesson for the whole crowd on greed.  That is when he told the parable of the rich farmer. 

            We cannot fool Jesus.  He knows our heart.  We can tell each other what we want.  We can present the best possible versions of ourselves to each other but Jesus sees the real us.  He loves us and died for us to save us.  But that is not the end of our spiritual journey.  Jesus intends to sanctify you. Jesus wants to set you apart, make you holy and use you to do His will.

            How is it with you today?  Find an opportunity today to live out your calling to be set apart and holy.  Shift your attention to the grain in your barn to what God would have you do with it. 

            Would you pray with me?