Courage!

This is the beginning of the Advent season. The season we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. But it is more than preparing for a holiday. It’s more that preparing to be spiritual on a day that has been overly commercialized by our culture. It is about looking forward to what God has in store and preparing our lives to live into his kingdom. That may require some changes if we are honest with ourselves.

We believe that Jesus was born to save the world. We believe that Jesus came not to condemn but to save. We believe that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. Therefore we believe that we are living between times. We live in a time where God’s kingdom has been initiated in this world but has not yet come to completion. We also believe that we are called to partner with God in the name of Jesus Christ to bring about the redemption of the world. If we are honest with ourselves, that may require us to make some changes.

My wife teases me sometimes for my lack of comfort in making changes. I tend to think that I deal with change well and my wife just shakes her head and points to the evidence to the contrary and I have to admit that I am rather uncomfortable with change. Why on earth would you want to change to position of the furniture in the living room?

The room didn’t change. We can still sit down.

Why change when you don’t have to?

But change happens. When change is necessary, it must happen. So we step out it faith trusting that God goes before us to prepare the way. God’s Kingdom is our aim. But the path to get there can seem very uncomfortable.

 The darkness that is in front of us can be terrifying.  The unknown can be too much to handle.  We fear failure; we fear losing what we have; perhaps we fear punishment; and many of us fear death.

Remember the lion from the Wizard of Oz?

“Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? Courage! What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the Sphinx the Seventh Wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage!...What puts the ape in ape-ricot? What have they got that I ain’t got? (courage) You can say that again!” –The wizard of Oz (1939) Screenwriters Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf.

The gift of courage was already in the lion it just needed to be summoned and brought to the surface.

I believe that the lack of courage is one of the greatest hindrances to realizing our own God-given potential and fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. Our own potential is rooted in the gifts and talents that God has given us.  God intends for us to grow in maturity, use what he has given us to the fullest for his glory and live into the kingdom of God.

I like to use the term “lack of courage” more than “fear.” If we fear something we have to do something we have to eliminate the source of fear or flee from it. Having courage means doing the thing that needs to be done. It’s going the extra mile. It’s putting yourself in a vulnerable position for the greater good. Courage means you can confidently serve God with your whole being for the Kingdom of God. You could be perfectly content and living without fear but that does not mean you living according to God’s purpose for you. Avoidance of discomfort is not our highest aim.

It doesn’t say this in the Bible but it can be said of Jesus that he came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. What do you think?

It seems to me that if we are comfortable and content that we have buried our talent.

This parable is another one of those that I misunderstood the first several times I read it. Last week we read about the bridesmaids who would not share their oil with those who didn’t have enough.  They were lifted up as the example.

This week we read about the landowner who takes away from those who have nothing and gives to those that already have in abundance.  This, again, seems contrary to what we believe about Jesus and his message.  But again, this is not about resources.  This parable is about being faithful with what we have.

The three servants in the story were entrusted with 1, 3, and 5 talents (measures) of money. The ones entrusted with 3 and 5 invested the money and eventually doubled their investment. The one with 1 talent feared the landowner and buried it.

The expectation of the landowner was that his servants would manage his resources in such a way that there would be growth.

When Jesus left his disciples he gave them the great commission to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…and teaching them.

The expectation of our master is that we baptize new Christians and teach them to be disciples. Our master expects growth!

The landowner in the parable came back and asked for an account of what his servants did with the resources he entrusted them with. He was pleased with the servants whom returned 3 and 5 talents. But the one who buried the 1 talent out of fear he was very displeased. He took the talent from him and cast him out.

The resources that God has given us are meant for the primary purpose of preparing the world for the kingdom of God. That means our time, our skills, our money, our attention and everything else we have is on loan from God to do his will. We will be accountable to God on how we have used what he has given us to fulfill his purpose.

Have you been blessed in this life? Know that you are not blessed without a purpose. God does not bless you to leave it with you. God expects you to bless someone else; to pass the blessing along. God does not invest in savings accounts God puts his resources into doing His work.

God is the creator God who is still creating. God calls us to get on board with him. If we choose to take what he has given us, bury it because we lack to courage to join the battle and do nothing, well then, it seems reasonable that God will but resources in the hands of another. It seems reasonable that God will equip the willing. Not that we are being punished when he takes away, it’s more to do with a refusal to act according to God’s plan.

There are needs in our community. HELP ministries needs drivers to take folks to doctor appointments. There are people in our neighborhood who need rides to the grocery store. The homeless shelter needs us St. Paul Church to host the shelter one day a month. The food pantries in town need us to donate. How is this part of making disciples? Jesus called us to feed the hungry and to heal the sick. If our neighbors can’t clear the hurdle of day to day living then they won’t be able to hear us when we tell them the good news about Jesus Christ.

So how is it with you today? Are you willing to summon the courage that is already in you to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ? 

The Light Inside You

I have to admit that this is not one of my favorite parables of Jesus.  It always seemed a mean of the wise not to share their oil with the others. It seems contrary to the Christian message.  We should give to those who are in need.

5 of the virgins were prepared. They had enough oil.  The other five were unprepared and asked if the others would share.  They would not.

So when you need a lamp. I would say a flashlight nowadays. You should have batteries and a backup set.  If you don’t, don’t go expecting me to share mine.  Is that the message? That you should hoard batteries? That’s what it seemed like to me and so I usually read past that parable and went on to something else.

But this parable has nothing to do with sharing resources. But has everything to do with bringing honor and praise to God. It is impossible to bring honor and praise to God if you don’t even acknowledge him. It is impossible to acknowledge him if you don’t know him.

Do you know God? Do you want to know God?

The light of God’s love is shining and all you need do is to seek it and God will reveal it. When you start on that intentional path of spiritual growth you will find purpose and direction in your life. Spiritual growth happens in a lot of different ways and can mean a lot of different things but Spiritual growth has something to do with focus.  Spiritual growth is a God thing first and last. Spiritual growth is what happens when God gets ahold of you and lives in you.  Spiritual growth is not a program or a class; spiritual growth is growing up in God. Spiritual growth is stepping out of darkness and into the light.

We can learn all there is to humanly know about God and there will be no spiritual growth if we choose to stay in the dark.

We can choose to believe a narrow set of things about God, about Jesus and about church.  But God is bigger than any ideas about God.  I had very positive (although very limited) experiences with the church as a child. But for some reason as a young adult I started to have less positive feelings about it. As I look back it was probably because my life choices didn’t match up with what I perceived to be the opinion of the church. When I expected to be judged for my lifestyle choices that is what I felt. After my first son was born and Diane and I were living in the upstairs of her grandmother’s house the church was the one place we found love in a world that seemed terribly harsh and dangerous. 

When I sought love and nurturing that is what I found.

The church is the best human manifestation of the ascended Christ but it is still human. God’s light shines despite our failures. We are the walking wounded looking for healing. We are beggars looking for bread. We are the dying looking for eternal life. When we focus on what we are looking for we will find it.

The problem is that we might look for the wrong things sometimes. You ever see a wounded chicken in a chicken coup? The other chickens will peck and peck at the wound. The wound will be made worse. The wounded chicken dies apart from the flock.

When we are focused on the wrong things wounds are made worse. When we focus on the wounds, the hunger and the death that is all we will see.  When we focus on the healing, the nourishment and life we have in Jesus, God is glorified!

Our focus should always be on glorifying God not on the failure to do so.  Honoring and praising God for what God is doing in our midst is the focus of our worship and our work.  Our lives are dedicated to doing as Jesus taught and teaching others to do the same. Our lives should be the light that lights the way for his return.

In our Gospel lesson Jesus tells this parable about the 10 virgins.

The wedding Ceremony

Avoid circumstances that will diminish your ability to bring glory to God.

Your oil is your ability to do that.

How does it diminish?

1.       Not having your spiritual house in order (sin).

2.       Condemning others for sin (log in your eye).

3.       Downplaying others sin (Millstone?)

But avoiding the wrong is the point of bringing glory to God!  What will set you on the path of bringing honor and praise to God?

1.       Receive forgiveness for your own failures

2.       Let God guide you in the course you know is right

3.       Love and forgive others despite their failures.

We could focus on the 5 virgins who were unprepared to receive the bridegroom. We could use this as a cautionary tale but as we prepare for the Christmas season I suggest we focus on the 5 who were prepared and do the same.

Our lamps our full of oil. We have the ability to light the way for our returning Lord. Let’s light our lamps and look with anticipation to his coming. 

What We Shall Be

This is All Saints Sunday. What is a saint? It’s someone who has exemplified the Christian life. It is someone who has been set apart. It is someone who has become holy.  We don’t have a way of criteria where people are formally named as saints. Even in those systems, I have come to learn that saint does not equal a perfectly lived life. It ultimately means a trust in God with one’s life.  How does one become holy and set apart? By having faith in Jesus Christ.

What is All Saints day?  It is a day to celebrate the communion of saints as we remember those who have died.

I brought this picture of my grandparents. Were they perfect? Yes, as grandparents go. I couldn’t have asked for any better.  Did they have flaws? Yes but they are getting harder to remember as the years roll on. They had faith in Jesus Christ and I look forward to seeing them again in the life to come.

Some of you brought photographs this morning. How did you choose which picture to bring? Was it because of the accomplishments of the person in the picture? Was it because they lived a flawless life?  Was it something else? What do you feel when you remember the person you hold in your heart? What do you remember? What do you let go of?

The reason you brought the picture is your own definition of a saint. Many of you did not bring a picture but you hold someone in your heart this morning. Perhaps you lit a candle in their memory. You hold them in your heart this morning on All Saints Day.

We have so many memories and stories of those that we have loved and lost in this life. But if you could boil it down to one word, one reason, one idea, one feeling, what would that word be?

If you would like, please share the word that comes to mind about the person you are remembering today…

All good things.

We have a promise. We will be made new.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians “ⁱⁿ an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the final trumpet. The trumpet will blast, and the dead will be raised with bodies that won’t decay, and we will be changed. ⁵³ 

We will be changed. But what shall we be?

Paul says we will have a body that won’t decay. But that is a little less information about eternal life than is satisfying isn’t it?  What I want to know is what life is like when we cross from this life into the next. And more importantly what will it be like when Jesus returns?

Let’s look at what Jesus says.

In the beginning of Chapter 5 of the Gospel according to Matthew we have a series of statements from Jesus.  They are traditionally called the Beatitudes. Do you know what beatitude means? It means the state of great joy, or supreme blessedness.

As you heard me read earlier the passage of scripture is repetitious in the phrase blessed are the… Blessed are those who…

Poor in spirit

Mourn

Who are meek

Who hunger and thirst for righteousness

Are pure in heart

The peacemakers

The persecuted

This is not a fun list of attributes. This is a list that represents a life that from the outside seems difficult and uncomfortable at best. But Jesus says they are blessed, that they are set apart for God.

Because our God is a God of reconciliation and transformation.

Because our God can bring life out of death.

God can fix what is broken and heal what is wounded.  

God has provided a way for you to have that healing. God has provided a way to have life that never ends and it is found in Jesus Christ.

But are you willing to let God transform you?

The love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ that reconciles us to God is the only path to blessedness. And while we live this life we have been gifted with the church. The Church is intended to be the body of Christ on earth.  The problem with the church is that it is filled with people who are broken and looking forward to being made whole again.  But we are a people set apart for God. By God’s grace we have become his children. We have taken on the mission to make disciples for him. To know Christ and to make him known.

Sometimes we forget to show love. Sometimes we forget to show mercy. But then sometimes we get it right. Sometimes by God’s grace we can be used to pass on a blessing to another. When we recognize our own brokenness and our own woundedness, we begin to forgive others for theirs and carry one another’s burdens.

When we learn that we cannot stand on our own, that we need someone else to lean on that ultimately we have to admit that we are powerless in this life, then God can truly move into your spirit and teach and guide you.  

This is what it means to be poor in spirit. Blessed… are those who are poor in spirit. Why? Because theirs is the kingdom of God. This is the definition of freedom and this leads to faith in Jesus Christ it is the definition of salvation.

And that’s what we are about. The kingdom of God, where we will be comforted. We will inherit the earth. We will be satisfied when we hunger and thirst for righteousness. We will be shown mercy. We will see God. We will be called the children of God!

Rejoice and be gland because your reward is great in heaven.

So how is it with you today? We have given only a little piece of time to accomplish His work on this earth. We celebrate those who have gone before us on this All Saints Day, this is a day of remembrance with joy, a celebration that there is life beyond life, and that death is not the end of life. Something that Jesus Christ accomplished for us.

What shall we be?  What will it be like in the resurrection? I don’t know but we know it will be blessed and supremely joyous.