The Kings Orders

A really cool stool given to me on Father's Day several years ago

Matthew 25:31-46

This stool I have right here was a gift from my family. It was a Fathers Day gift several years ago. It is supposedly a Chiefs stool. I don't know which culture it comes from but apparently a leader of a tribe/community would have something like this and it is a symbol of his authority. It isn't the most comfortable thing though. It is a little too low and there is this metal work that takes away as much comfort as it adds design and beauty.

We, in the adult discussion group, have been talking for the past couple of weeks about Christmas and the best gifts, the worst gifts and the most appropriate gifts to give that demonstrate love and honor Jesus. Rather than being participants in a hyper-consumerist frenzy that ends in disappointment on or about December 26^th every year, we have been exploring ways to make the celebration of the coming of the Savior a more intentional, more meaningful event. And more than that: Not just a day but the whole season can bee steeped in generosity that doesn't have to show it's self in meaningless spending but its a generosity that truly demonstrates the unbounded, unrestrained, unconditional love of god for us.

We were talking about specific gifts we had been given that were meaningful. I failed to remember one very important gift I received. It was a gift that produced in me so much gratitude I couldn't have expressed it adequately with words. What I received on one particular summer day in either 1992 or 1993 I can't exactly remember any more, was one that, though I don't remember the year I will never forget the gift it's self

Now you might expect me to tell about a time when I learned something from a beloved friend or relative that taught me a valuable lesson. Or perhaps I came to a realization about some truth of life through some hardship that I went through. Well, such examples are valuable and can be gifts to be cherished, this, example however is nothing like that. The gift I received was an actual object given to me with out any expectation of return.

It was a t shirt. A single brown cotton blend t-shirt. There were no words printed on the front of it. It didn't come from a particularly special person. I didn't receive it on a particularly auspicious occasion. Just a t-shirt. The thing is, is that the thing I needed most at that moment was indeed a t-shirt and when I needed it, it was given to me.

It was a hot-hot day in that summer of '92 or '93. I was in Grayling Michigan with my National guard unit. We were on a long movement, walking through the woods, ruck sacs full, up and down those hills trying to stay focused, trying to get to where we were going. We stopped. Someone was down. Someone in my unit was suffering from heat exhaustion. We were in too remote an area for an ambulance so we made a litter a stretcher and carried him to the nearest place where an ambulance could pick him up. We moved on. Hot and sweaty we pushed on. When the storms clouds rolled in we saw it as a welcome relief from the heat. When it started to rain we didn't even put our rain gear on because it felt so good. But that turned out to be a mistake. I would find out days later that the National Weather Service reported that the temperature that day dropped 40 degrees in less than 30 minutes. Now I don't know if it was 100 degrees and dropped to 60, or if it was 90 and dropped to 50, I just know that when you are wet, tired, hungry in 40 or 50 or even 60 degree weather it's cold. In fact one of our soldiers went into hypothermia. Sgt. Steed earned a lifesaving medal that day when he lent his own body heat to that down soldier while we waited for the med-evac helicopter to come. We were to far in the woods to carry him back to the point where an ambulance could get to him. We were all cold. I was shivering violently and uncontrollably. I could have been the next one to do down. Until one of my fellow soldiers handed me a dry brown t-shirt. I took of the wet one I had, put the dry one on. Covered it in a rain jacket. Instead fighting to keep my body temperature normal I was able to focus on the task at hand, which was getting out of the woods and going home. I felt such relief and such gratitude.

We serve a Great, Big God. That this great God uses small things to reveal himself to us. He didn't call the elite or the powerful to be his disciples, he called the outcasts and the not-good-enoughs. He wasn't born in a palace but in a barn.

God doesn't call us to to be the biggest and the best. God doesn't call us to draw attention to ourselves with the grand gesture. He calls us to offer water to the thirsty, visits to those who are sick and in prison, food to the hungry and might I add, a t-shirt to those who are cold and wet.

Does this look like a throne of a king?  Perhaps.

This is Christ The King Sunday. This is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. At the end of this year we are at the very edge of a new beginning. Next week we begin again a year with the season of Advent. Christ the King, bumped right up next to Christ the baby born in a barn to a teen-aged mom. The baby who lived under Roman occupation, the baby who would be a refugee in another country for a time. That baby would be come Christ the King. Our king! Jesus said, “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory?” I wonder what that will look like.

What will the throne of Jesus look like? Have you ever seen the movie Indiana Jones and the last Crusade? There is a scene in which Indiana Jones has to choose from dozens of goblets the one that belonged to Jesus during his earthly life. He bypassed all the big, bejeweled, and shiny Goblets in favor of a small simple cup. “The cup of a carpenter” he said. We serve a big God, we serve a powerful god. But God is a god of the small, the simple and the humble. Rather than big and shiny and bejeweled, I figure God's throne might look something like this Chief's stool. Simple and wooden.

We might be tempted to make the faith and to make the season about grand gestures and events and really great feelings. But Jesus says it's about giving a cup of water to the thirsty, some food to the hungry and taking care of the stranger.

So how is it with you today? Your King requires something of you. Mica 6:8 says, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? We can't say we never knew what we were supposed to do. Its right here in his Word. If you did or did not do it for the least of these who are members of his family you did or did not do it for Jesus. Simple as that. Would you pray with me?  

It's Between You and God

Matthew 23

The death of singer Amy Winehouse was caused by alcohol.  That was the report this week.  She died several weeks ago, and finally the cause of death was announced. One of Amy Winehouse’s most catchy tunes is “Rehab,” in that song the chorus says “they try to make me go to rehab. I say, “No, no, no.” Which in light of her alcohol caused death was strangely prophetic.  Often times we do not do the thing we ought to do for our own good.  And often we do the things that we should not do.
When we come to the end of our days on this earth, you will enter the life you have made for yourself for all of eternity.    It will be between you and God.  It won’t matter what your church did.  It won’t matter what happened to you as a kid.  It won’t matter how you did in School.  It won’t matter that you were dealt a bad hand in life or that you were mistreated by those around you.  It won’t matter that more of your deeds in life were good rather than bad, or vice versa.  At the end of your days as in every day until then it is all just between you and God, and that is a good thing.  Because you cannot control what happens outside of your own actions.  In your life have you known God; have you served God and your neighbors; in your life have you had an active relationship with the living Lord Jesus?  I don’t know what kind of relationship Amy Winehouse had with God.  Even if I did know I wouldn’t presume to know what happened to her after death.  That is not for us to judge.  That is between her and God.
Jesus once said "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' Matthew 7:21-23
No one would want that. No one would want to be rejected by their teacher much less rejected by the author of creation.  Rejection is painful.
But that will be a matter that is between you and God.
There was a time before I was a pastor when Diane (my wife) and I owned and operated a restaurant together.  The economy in the town we had our business took a major hit when the 2500 jobs were lost when one employer moved their operation out of the country.   Our business dropped off significantly, so much so we decided to open on Sunday afternoons.  We loved God, we understood the concept of keeping the Sabbath holy, but the world crept in.  We had bills to pay, including 20 plus people on the payroll.   We didn’t open until after noon so that we and our employees could still go to worship. It was a difficult decision and I am not saying it was the right one.  But that is what we did.  A few weeks into this new schedule a man from the church, whom I had great respect for said, “I see you are open on Sundays now.”  I said yes.  Before abruptly walking away he said with a bit of a sneer “Anything to make a buck, huh?”
I wanted to say “Hey! That’s between me and God!” but didn’t because I respected him.  His words hurt. I looked up to him as a spiritual man and now he made it clear that he disapproved of my decision.  He judged me with out knowing why.  I still loved God.  I still prayed to God and trusted Jesus for my salvation.  He didn’t ask me that.  In his mind, I broke God’s law.  And so he rejected me and there was a rift in our relationship.  Is that what God meant when he gave his commandments? Did he mean them to be a weapon by which we may attack each other?
Jesus in his wisdom tells us to not look to each other for ultimate affirmation, but rather look to Him.  And he tells us not to take for ourselves those roles of ultimate authority, “You are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.  And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father-the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah.” Matthew 23:8-10.
Amy Winehouses’ song says, “I aint got the time.  My Daddy thinks I’m fine…I won’t go, go, go.” If her daddy thought she was fine, she should have been listening to her heavenly father.
Jesus was denouncing the religious leaders of the day. He was telling the crowd and his disciples that the Pharisees, who knew the law very well, make the law a burden to the people.  And they do nothing to help them.  Jesus called them out for using their position to benefit them, to gain favor and notoriety.  There is a pastor of a church out there telling his church to protest at soldiers’ funerals, causing further pain, suffering, and sorrow for people who are already in pain.  And they do it.  At the end of their life, each one will have to stand before God and answer for their actions.  If I ever tell you something that is contrary to eternal truths you are obligated to disregard it, because in the end it will be between you and God.
We are all brothers and sisters in Christ.  Not one of us is elevated above another. Jesus has made us “to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father” Revelation 1:6.  It really is a challenge to keep the notion that it really is just between you and God.
We see people that are clearly mature Christians living in difficult times but with an ever-present peace that can come only by having that relationship with God.  We also see people who are living lives contrary to God’s law and we see misery and shallowness.  It would seem our responsibility to condemn, to wag our finger. But it’s not.  Our responsibility is to offer Christ.  To pass on God’s love that was first shown to us.  What others do with it is between God and them.  Jesus said “The greatest among you will be your servant.”  Greatness is measured by Jesus in terms of servanthood.  Think for a moment who demonstrates a servant’s heart in this congregation.  Who, without self-promotion, serves?  I am sure there are many names coming to mind right now.  The name that comes to my mind is Nancy Houk.  She serves this congregation far beyond her job title as church secretary.   Now I’m not about to judge her relationship with God.  But by the measure that Jesus set, I would say that Nancy is producing good fruit.
Jesus calls us to be great.  Jesus calls us to transcend our earthly teachers and live a life of excellence.  So how do we get there? How do we live a life of excellence?
We get there by doing as St. Paul teaches in Romans chapter 12, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.  Renew your mind. Make your mind new again.  Jesus said that we must have faith like that of children.  So don’t think of yourself as Rabbi, as teacher, or instructor.  Think instead of yourself as student, child, and disciple.  I could say we get there by being humble, but one cannot become humble by trying to be so.  Instead I say re-think your role in this life as a child of God.  Everyone you meet bears the image of God; honor the Spirit of God in each person.  Everyone you meet has something to teach.  What that is, is between them and God.  What you learn; what you take away from any encounter is between you and God.
So, how is it with you today on your journey through this life?  Have you missed a blessing or a lesson because you were too busy worrying about someone else’s journey.  May God open your heart and mind to what God is teaching you through your brothers and sisters.  Would you pray with me?