Scripture:  Acts 13:42-52

  Jacob Albright was born to German immigrants in what was the British colony of Pennsylvania   Albright fought for the Pennsylvania militia in the revolution, and after suffering the tragedy of losing multiple children to dysentery he suffered a crisis of faith.  He had been baptized into the Lutheran church, but he did not find much comfort for his grief there.   He eventually found his faith in the holiness movement, specifically in a small Methodist class that met in someone’s home.  This rural Methodist community recognized Albright as an exhorter, today what we would call a lay preacher.  Albright felt called by God to preach the gospel to German speaking immigrants, and he felt an affinity to both the Methodist emphasis on holiness and its organizational structure.  Albright sought permission to fulfill his calling and formally preach and organize German communities into Methodist societies that spoke German.   However, Bishop Francis Asbury and others in Methodist leadership opposed this idea.  They insisted that if Jacob Albright was to continue as a Methodist lay preacher, then he could only preach in English. 

This happened because in 18th century American, especially in Pennsylvania, there was a strong anti-German sentiment.  We can find proof of this, somewhat surprisingly, in the writings of Benajmin Franklin.  Franklin wrote, “Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of us Anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs.”

 It was this cultural bias that influenced the Methodist leadership to tell Albright not to preach in German.  Albright faced a church, bring the gospel to German speaking immigrants or stay Methodist.  Albright chose to preach the gospel, but as he did so he continued to use a very Methodist organizational structure.  After Albright’s death the German faith communities he helped create came together into a new denomination called the Evangelical Association.  The Evangelical Association had its roots in the holiness movement and German communities.  They were not the only ones and by the 1940’s these traditions had merged together in one called the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

As xenophobic fears often are, it turns out that Franklin’s fears of Germanization never came to pass.  Even though the Evangelical United Brethren church had its roots in German communities, it was thoroughly American and English speaking by the middle of the 20th century. The culture differences that led Jacob Albright out of the Methodist Church at the turn of the 19th century had been erased.  So, in 1968 the church that Jacob Albright had inadvertently founded, the Evangelical United Brethen merged with the Methodist Episcopal church to create the United Methodist Church. 

 The way that Jacob Albright was treated and how that treatment was influenced by cultural bias, is a dark spot in our Methodist history.   It is a dark spot that seems to loudly echo this morning’s scripture.  The Jewish leaders in this morning’s scripture let a bias against Paul’s message to the gentiles lead them to opposing the gospel.  Anti-German sentiment of the time led the Methodist leader of 1800 to oppose preaching the good news in German.  The message of the church, the good news of Jesus Christ, it is not just meant for insiders.  It is not just meant for people who fit a certain mold.  It is a message for everyone.  This morning’s scripture should cause us to ask ourselves are we letting something hinder who we share the message with? 

This morning’s scripture comes from Paul’s first missionary journey.  He is in the city of Pisidian Antioch.  This is in what is modern day Turkey, it was a city built up around a crossroads and as such was a trade hub.  We picked up the story right after Paul had delivered his sermon, making the case for Jesus, in the synagogue.  We see in this morning’s scripture what becomes a pattern for Paul’s missionary journeys.  Paul arrives in a city and initially shares the gospel in the synagogue.  While there may be Jewish people who believe the good news, the message inevitably moves beyond to the Gentiles and then there is Jewish opposition to Paul’s message.  While the details are different in each city, this is the common pattern that emerges.  

What is interesting in this instance is that initially Paul did not have any opposition.  Verse 42 states that the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath.”  However, buzz about Paul and his message spread throughout the city so that by the next sabbath there was a large crowd, including a lot of gentiles or non-Jews.  This is where the trouble starts.   What was initially a positive reception goes south, when Paul and Barnabas begin sharing the good news with the gentiles.  This morning’s scripture mentions they were jealous.  They were not jealous that Paul got larger crowds than them, they were jealous because Paul’s message was not exclusive and just for them.    Some of the Jewish leaders did not like that Paul’s message was being shared with the gentiles, they did not like that the salvation he preached was not just for them, and they were not comfortable with the idea that the grace of Jesus Christ is for everyone.

Much like the 18th century Methodist leaders, the Jewish leaders of Pisidian Antioch let their own cultural biases get in the way.  While cultural biases certainly still exist today and have the potential trip us up, I doubt any church would purposely exclude anyone on a cultural basis.  We may not insist on excluding certain languages or be jealous that the good new of Jesus applies to a certain people group, but the unfortunate reality is that people still find themselves excluded from Christianity.  There are still insiders and outsiders.  

There is an old story that illustrates this.  The story goes there was a young boy who came from not the best family, and he was from the wrong side of the tracks.  He may have heard a preacher on the TV, or it could have been something else, but something got into him and he wanted to know more about Jesus.  So, one Sunday morning he left and walked across the train tracks and up the hill to the biggest church in town.   This was the kind of church that the phrase “country club church” was created for.   This was the kind of church that the right people went to so they could be seen.  This was the kind of church that took great pride in their stained-glass windows, Mahogany pulpit and silver candle sticks.   The boy walked into the church and sat down near the back.  In a few minutes the head usher came and tapped him on the shoulder and said he needed to move because he was in Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so’s seat.   Once the service started this unchurched boy was lost.  He did not know when to stand, when to sit, and what a hymnal was.  He tried to ask those around him for help but again found the head usher tapping him on the shoulder and telling him not to be a nuisance to others.    The service went on, and the boy got more and more confused and impatient.   Finally, in the middle of the sermon the boy raised his hand and said, “excuse me, can you tell me more about Jesus?”   There was silence, and the head usher stormed over to the boy, practically picked him up, and carried him out of the sanctuary.    The head usher said, “I do not think this is the right place for you” and pointed to the door.  The boy left the church, sat down on the curb and began crying.   A man stopped and asked him “what’s wrong.”  The boy looked up and instantly knew this man was Jesus.   The boy said through sniffles, “They kicked me out of there.”   Jesus smiled and said, “That’s OK, they kicked me out of there years ago.”

The church in the story is obviously a caricature.  Very few churches are stuffy and hostile.  Every church I have ever been in believes with all their heart that they are friendly and welcoming, but many churches do end up communicating to people, “I don’t think this is the right place for you.”  The way this most regularly happens today is by intentionally and unintentionally insisting that church is for the insiders.  It is for the people who are already there.  That is what made the church in the story so hostile to the boy.  There was an assumption that everyone just knew how things were done, and when that poor boy did not conform to that assumption it was not the right place for him. 

 This is an issue that we constantly must be cautious about.  Often one of the reasons why we keep coming to a church is because we are comfortable there.  We tend to like it when something comfortable becomes more comfortable and we tend to bristle when something that we find comfortable gets changed in the even the slightest.  It can be incredibly easy for churches to cater more and more to the insiders at the expense of anyone on the outside. We must be cautious of elevating our comfort, our own way of doing things, above the mission of making disciples and sharing the good news. 

Nashville based Pastor and church consultant wrote about this in one of his books.  He relayed a time that he was hired to consult with a church that was struggling with an aging congregation and shrinking attendance.  As he talked with the leadership he found them to be very resistant to the idea of change, so he eventually asked them , “What are you not willing to change, even if you were 100 percent certain that the change would cause more people to be reached for Christ?”

These church leaders discussed this and they actually created a small list of things they simply felt were out of bounds and that they could not ever imagine changing.  Stevens recorded his response when he wrote, “ I told them ‘the only acceptable answer to that question is nothing.  There can’t be anything you’re not willing to change if it means more people would be reached. . .Otherwise, you’ve forgotten your purpose as a church.” 

We can let our own personal biases and our desire to make things comfortable for ourselves lead us to be resistant to change.  In doing so we end up excluding people.  This is not how it should be.  Churches should not be placed dedicated to keeping the insiders in and the outsiders out.  In fact, it should be the exact opposite.  We should strive to get those inside out and those outside in.  We should strive to get outside our walls, to reach out into our community, and invite people in.  This certainly requires us to be willing to welcome and accept people who may have different backgrounds or perspectives.  It will likely require us to be open to change, and it may even require us to get a little comfortable with not always being comfortable.

Paul always started with the insiders in the synagogue, but it was for everyone.  He was not afraid to reach out to people who were different than he was.  He was not afraid to share the good news of Jesus with people who did not quite fit the mold of who normally attended the synagogue.   Because of that as verse 49 states, “The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.”   In the same way, if we want the world of the Lord to spread throughout the whole region, then we must be willing to take the message of Jesus, the good news of salvation, the freedom of the forgiveness of sins, and the life changing reality of grace from the inside out.

 So may we be willing to share the good news, even if that means someone new ends up sitting in our pew.  May we be willing to share the good news, even if that means we have to be more intentional in reaching outside our walls and engaging the community.  May we be willing to share the good news, even if it means we need to be willing to make changes.  Like the story of Jacob Albright this morning’s scripture is a cautionary tale.  May we not let anything get in the way of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and may we be willing to share Jesus Christ with the world. 
            

Scripture:  Acts 9:36-43
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Ida Florence Litherland lived down where the Ohio River flows between Indiana and Kentucky.  In her younger days, the early part of the 20th century, this is still when river towns dotted the river’s coast and their primary connection to the rest of the world was the river.  Ida was best known for her short stature and her devout faith.  She was less than five feet tall, and she walked miles every week in all kinds of weather to attend church.   These two facts are probably what made her actions on one particular night so surprising.  While he eventually turned it around and committed to the straight and narrow, early on her husband drank a lot and gambled a lot.  This was a source of friction in their relationship.   One night Ida had hit her breaking point, and she had had enough of her husband being gone all hours of the night drinking and gambling.  So, she grabbed a shotgun, went down to whatever backroom a group of men were gathered in and she cleared the place out.  She shut down all the drinking and gambling on that particular evening.  It must have been quite the sight to see this little woman, wielding a firearm almost half her size, convincing a group of men that the best course of action was to call it a night.  I know this story because Ida Florence Litherland is my great grandmother. 

It is also the only story I really know about my great grandmother.  We all leave a legacy, the influence and stories that live on beyond our earthly lives.  In more subtle ways, the legacy of Ida Florence Litherland continues.  Her deep faith conviction and apparent strong will have most certainly rippled down through generations, but the only story that has been passed down more than a century so that her great, great grandchildren have heard it is the one with the shotgun.  Apparently, we do not always get to control what people remember us by.  

The incident with the shotgun was a little out of character for Ida, but it is the action that created a story that stood the test of time.  This morning’s scripture shows that our actions go a long way to influencing how we are remembered and what kind of legacy we live.  People may not remember what we said, but the will remember what we did.   Tabitha, or Dorcus if you prefer the Greek, left a legacy of so many good deeds and positive actions, that the people she touched were not ready to let her go.   She made a real difference.  If we want to be a difference maker, if we as individuals and as a church, want to be known and remembered as someone who transformed this world into a better place, then Tabitha shows us how to do it.

From a literary standpoint, the focus of this morning’s scripture is supposed to be on Peter.  It comes from the beginning of a section that focuses on Peter’s exploits.  The intention is to show that Peter, being filled with the Holy Spirit, can do the same miraculous things that Jesus did.  Just before this morning’s scripture reading, Peter tells a paralyzed man to pick up his mat and walk just like Jesus did.  In this morning’s scripture, Peter tells Tabitha to get up, much like how Jesus told Lazarus to come out.  Within the greater framework of the book of Acts, that is the main point that is to be taken away.  The apostles are doing the same miraculous work of Jesus as the continue to spread the good news.  However, within the context of the story being told in this morning’s scripture, Tabitha stands out.  She does not show back up again in the scripture; we do not hear anymore about her.  However, just in this small story we get a lot of detail.  She is more than just a background character, a prop to be healed before Peter moves on.  The author of Acts intentionally slows down and gives us a lot of extra details about Tabatha.  Even though she is not the primary focus of this scripture, the author intentionally seems to lift her up as a person to emulate.  

By focusing on what is written about Tabitha we can get a sense of the kind of difference that she made.  Verse 36 tells us that she was always doing good and helping the poor.   While it is not explicitly stated, we get an idea of the kind of good work that she did.   Verse 39 tells us that all the widows were mourning her death, and they showed Peter the clothing that she had made.   In the first century, society, widows were some of the most destitute and impoverished people in society.   If their husband died, then the widow had to rely on their son, but if the widow did not have a son or the son did not fulfill his obligations, then the widow was in very dire straits.   Tabitha cared for and provided for the widows.  Part of her work was clearly making clothes for them.   Yet that must have only been part of it, because the bible does not state that she “did a lot of caring for the widows.”   It states she was “always doing good works and helping the poor.”   The work she did for others and the care she showed the poor was what defined by.  It is these actions that she was known for, and we get the impression that is what she was loved for. She was so loved that the people she made a difference for, fought to make sure death did not get her.

     It was Jewish burial practice in the first century to bury very quickly.  It was common to bury a body the same day that the person died.   Given that, it is amazing how fast they got Peter there.   Lydda was about 12 miles from Joppa.   Even at a marathon running pace, it would have taken nearly two hours to get there and another two hours to get back.    They really wanted Peter to be present, not so that he could attend the funeral but so that he could prevent it.    Tabitha made such an impact on her community that they did not settle for mourning her.   They were willing to go to any lengths to get her back.   When people gathered after her passing, they did not start sharing condolences, their first thought was how can we fix this.   The impact that Tabitha made was so great that they could not fathom being without her, at least not yet.    She was missed so greatly that God raised the dead.  

The bible records that Tabitha was a believer in Jesus, and it was this faith that motivated her to do good and help the poor.   Tabitha is an example that is worth following.  Tabitha was not an apostle.  There is no record of her doing amazing, supernatural miracles.  There is no record of her going on globe hopping missionary trips or preaching to auditoriums fully of people.   No, what the bible testifies about her faith is that she was always doing good and helping the poor.     Her faith motivated her to actions, which defined her and made a real and lasting impact on those around her.  The people that Tabitha made a difference for knew she was a a Christian by her love.  This morning’s scripture, challenges us by asking, can people same the same about us?

            Bishop Mike Coyner, who was the resident United Methodist Bishop in Indiana from 2004 to 2016, would ask a couple of different questions regularly to get to the same point.  He would ask, “If someone stopped at the closest gas station to your church, and asked for the directions to the church, would the attendant know where the church is?”  The idea behind the question is to ask if the local church is such a fixture in the community that most people in the community know about the church and where to find it.  

            The other questions that he would ask is, “If your church up and closed tomorrow, would the community notice?”  This is convicting question, really gets at the heart of this morning’s scripture.  Tabitha died, and her community noticed.  Her community took drastic actions to change it.   This is because Tabitha was known for her actions, she was known for how she made a difference, she was known by her love.  The church, Trinity UMC, it is not this building.  It is the people, it is us.   So, if we were to disappear tomorrow the reason why the community would miss the church, is because they miss us.  They will miss how we are doing good, how we are helping the poor, and how our actions are making God’s love known.  If we want to be the kind of church that our community would miss, if we want to be the kind of church that is so essential to the life of the community that even a random gas station employee knows where we are, then we have to follow the example of Tabitha and be a difference maker.   

Tabitha made a difference in her community by seeing a need and meeting the need.   She provided clothes for the poor widows.  The reason why Tabitha made such a huge difference is because her actions put her in direct contact with the people she was helping.  In his book Shift 2.0 ministry coach Phil Maynard, points out that churches in general tend to be really good at what he calls missional gestures.  These are doing things like donating to food pantries and doing school supply drives.  These are good actions that do make a difference, but they do not engage with the community around us.  Maynard puts forth that churches need to be more intentional to undertake what he calls ministries of engagement, where the congregation interacts directly with those who are receiving the services.  

This is what Tabitha did.  When she died, people were not going to miss her clothes, they were going to miss her.   The people she served knew she was a Christian by her love, because they knew that she loved them by name.  This is something that all of us can do.  Tabitha found a specific need that she had the skills and passion to meet. We live in a fallen world where there is no shortage of needs, so here is a challenge for you.   When you go home this afternoon make a list of the needs that you are most passionate about or that you feel the most able to meet.   Then, pick one: see that need and meet that need.  It is that simple.  Just do it.  Or better yet, bring it back to your church family so that we can join you and we can all work together at it.   

Identifying and meeting specific needs in our community, country, or world is a good way that we can follow the example of Tabitha.  It is a good way to be a difference maker and be known by our actions.  However, it is not the only way, and it is not even the simplest way.   There is no reason to overthink this.  The easiest way that we can let people know we are Christians by our love, the easiest way that our faith can make a real and lasting difference is just to be kind.  Nashville based pastor Todd Stevens does a great job at defining kindness.   He wrote, “when I take action to help someone deal with a struggle or hurt, I am meeting a need.   Kindness is different because it helps someone who may not be dealing with any sort of crisis.  Kindness is simply doing something that benefits someone else.”  

Kindness is showing the love of God to another person without an agenda.   A life that is defined by kindness is synonymous with a life defined by God’s love.   Even better, kindness, even small acts of kindness, has a lasting impact.  People who are hurting, people who are lonely, people who need to know there is somewhat out there who cares about them: Our beliefs do not matter much to them right now and our words will not make a lasting impact.  What will make a lasting difference our actions done in Christian love.   This  is how we change the world. 

For better or worse, what we are remembered for, what we are known for our the actions we take.  So may we be known in this community, by our loving actions.  May they know we are Christian by our love.   May this town know that Jesus loves them, because we love them.   May we see the needs and may we meet the needs.  Like Peter and the other apostles in Acts, we have been entrusted with the good news of Jesus Christ.  Like Tabitha, we can make this good news known through our actions.  So may we just do it.  May we take this love of God, and may we pass it on. 
            

               Several years ago, I was invited to the University of Indianapolis to speak at the Student Leadership Academy. This program was a partnership between the university and the Indiana Conference to help young people discover how they can best make a difference in the world.  It turned out that one of the students knew me.  When I was in seminary I served part time at Epworth UMC in Indianapolis as the youth minister, and she was a child in the church.  When I went on to a full-time appointment after graduation, she was seven.  When I came to speak, she was fifteen and one of the teens attending.  When it was my turn to speak, I began by introducing myself.  As part of the introduction, I started to say, “Perhaps the thing I am best known for” and I did not get to finish the sentence, because this girl who I had not seen for half her life shouted out “Star Wars.” 

​Now that is not what I was going to say, but maybe she is right.  Star Wars is probably something have associated with me for most of life at this point.  It is a somewhat earned reputation.  I really do love all things Star Wars.  The reason why is actually very similar to one of the reasons why I love the Bible so much.  In both instances, I am captivated by the story.  With Star Wars I lose myself in a galaxy far, far away, and in the Bible, I find myself in an epic story of a God who loves us too much to give up on us.  I am entertained by stories of space wizards with laser swords and star fighters, but I am transformed by a story of a King who died for me, but the grave could not hold him.  For very different reasons I love the story of Star Wars and the story of the Bible, but every now and then those two stories intersect, and themes are the same.   This morning’s scripture is one of those places where the two stories I love so much intersect. 

The first part of the book of Acts goes to great lengths to establish Saul as the villain of the story.  The book of Acts starts off with the community of Jesus followers growing, but it also has growing tensions with the Jewish religious leaders.  These clashes keep getting more and more volatile until they finally spill into violence with the stoning of Stephen. Saul was complicit in the murder of the first martyr as Acts 7:58 records, “Meanwhile the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.” 

From this point a general persecution breaks out among the church in Jerusalem, and Acts tells us that Saul was at the forefront of this, he sought to destroy the church, and had many people arrested.  Saul was not finished yet, because by time we get to this morning’s scripture it records “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.”  Saul is the bad guy in the story, he is the ultimate villain seeking to destroy the church once and for all.   Yet, this morning’s scripture throws a curveball.  Saul, the enemy of Christ, comes to follow Christ.   The villain is redeemed.  This morning’s scripture records the conversion of Saul, and the book of Acts begins to shift from focusing on Peter and the other disciples to focusing on Saul-now called Paul- and how God uses him to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. 

This morning’s scripture intersects strongly with Star Wars, because in Star Wars the bad guy, the ultimate villain, is Darth Vader.  He very much looks the part: clad all in black, with a red lightsaber, and menacing breathing.   Despite being the bad guy, at the end of Return of the Jedi, when all seems lost for the good guys, Darth Vader turns back to the light.  He is redeemed.   One of the major themes of Star Wars, one of the major storytelling morals it seeks to communicate is that no one is beyond redemption.  In Star Wars, if Darth Vader can turn back to the light, then it’s not too late for anyone.   That is the same point of this morning’s scripture.  If Saul can come to know Jesus, if God can use the person who persecuted the church to share the good news with the gentiles, then there is no one beyond forgiveness and God can use anyone.   This morning’s scripture is proof that when the Spirit moves, it can awaken even the most hardened of hearts.  When the Spirit awakens in the life of someone, then there is nothing that can separate them from the love of God.  

 This is good news!  This is good news for everyone, but it is especially good news for two specific groups of people.  The first are people who think they have somehow angered God past the point of no return.  While these people may not articulate it as such, they believe that because of their actions they have blown their chance with God.  Often feeling this way keeps people away from church.  Over the years there have been times when someone visits the church I am serving for some reason, and they will make a joke like “I am surprised the walls haven’t fallen down” or “don’t stand too close pastor, the lightning bolt might still be coming.”   I know they are trying to joke around and lighten the mood, but often those jokes come from a place of deep hurt.   There are too many people who believe that something they have done is unforgiveable.  They believe they have messed up, and God is done with them.  

This is simply not true.   There is nothing we can do to make God love us any less.   If there is anyone that deserved to have God make an example of them, it is Saul.   Yet, not only does Saul receive forgiveness, but Jesus also seeks him out.  Jesus meets him where he is at and then arranges for Ananias to care for him.  If Saul, the persecutor of Christ, can be forgiven then there is nothing we can do that can not be forgiven. No one is beyond redemption.   This is the absolute beauty of grace, and the scandal of the cross.  No one, absolutely no one, is beyond forgiveness. There are no exceptions, Jesus died to redeem everyone and cancel out every sin  It does not matter how far one gets from God, it does not matter how many years have passed, it does not matter how big the gulf may seem.  Forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation with our creator is only one step away.  It only takes turning back to God. 

 The second group of people who most need the good news of this morning’s scripture are people who have been made to feel like that God never wanted them.   This one infuriates me.   It makes me angry because they have been misled by people claiming to follow Jesus.  There are too many people today who have been told by those inside the church that they have no place here.   That this is not for them.  Before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, this is the very attitude that Saul had.  Saul believed the first Jesus followers were outside the love of God.  He believed that God’s love was not for them, that they were heretics who deserved death.    There is an uncomfortable number of people spread across churches today who have too much in common with pre-conversion Paul.  I know this because there are too many horror stories out there about how people have been hurt by the church.   There are too many people who have been told that they are incompatible with the gospel of Christ, and there are too many people who have been told that just existing as themselves is wrong. 

               Again, this is all simply not true.  Anyone can come to know the all surpassing love of God, and when the Spirit awakens in someone we do not get to sit in judgement and tell them that they are wrong because they do not check all our boxes.  We did not have to meet a certain threshold of good actions before God would accept us.   If that is true for us, then that is true for anyone else.  We should not expect other people to have conform to a standard that we create to be accepted.  The good news that we believe, the good news that we are supposed to proclaim is that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  There are no asterisks or exceptions to that good news.  God sent Jesus because God’s love was for everyone.  There are no outsiders to God’s love. 

               The happy ending of the original Star Wars trilogy is that the good guys win, and Darth Vader is redeemed back the light.  The good news of this morning’s scripture is the same.  No one is beyond redemption, and God’s love is for everyone.   Paul himself wrote as much. Years after his conversion experience in this morning’s scripture, and after multiple missionary trips to share Jesus far and wide, Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote about God’s love.  Paul was not writing about this in theory, he was writing from a place of experience.  He was writing from the perspective of a person’s who life completely changed when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus.  He was writing from the perspective of a person who had deeply wronged Jesus, but still experienced grace and forgiveness.  He was writing from the perspective a person to whom the Spirit had awakened the true nature of God’s love.   In Romans 8:38-39, Paul wrote these words, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angles nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Friends, may we take this scripture to heart.  If you are here today and you are honestly a little surprised the walls haven’t fallen in yet, then may you know you have nothing to worry about.  Whatever you have done, If you ask  then God will forgive you.   If you have ever been made to feel that God does not want you, then I am so sorry that someone misled you.  God’s love, the grace and new life offered through the death and resurrection is for everyone, and that includes you.  There are no outsides to God’s love, and there is grace enough for everyone. 

If you do consider yourself a follower of Jesus, if you do believe that you are redeemed by grace the may take the scripture to heart as well, and may we live in such a way that communicates to everyone that nothing will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Ananias gives us a good example in this morning’s scripture.  He knew who Paul was, but he was obedient to Christ and accepted Paul anyway.  May we also be quick to accept others, no matter who they are.  Like Ananias was for Paul, may we be quick to accept, quick to offer grace, and quick to invite the Holy Spirit to awaken in their lives. 

One of the core messages of Star Wars is that no one is beyond redemption.  That same message is central to this morning’s scripture, and it is one of the primary truths that all of scripture communicates to us.  May we not be silent, but may we proclaim that good news.  Through how we treat others, through how we invite others, and through how we accept others may our lives testify that we believe there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.   May we believe that there are no outsiders to God’s love and mean it. In this morning’s scripture Paul turns away from the wrong he was doing and turns to Jesus, the son of God.  May we be willing to tell everyone that if they too repent and believe the gospel, then the Lord will be with you always.  
 

Scripture:  Acts 5:27-29

Sixty years ago in March of 1965, the Civil Rights movement turned bloody.  One of the major issues that the civil rights movement was seeking to address was voter suppression of black people.  In Alabama to protest this issue a march on the capitol of Montgomery was organized.  The planned protest march had the protestors crossing over the Edmund Pettus bridge.   Local police and state troopers were blocking the bridge’s exit, and when the peaceful protestors reached the law enforcement officers, the authorities responded with extreme violence.  March 7th, 1965 is remembered as bloody Sunday in the civil rights movement.   Seventeen of the protestors, mostly students, were hospitalized and at least fifty more were treated for lesser injuries.   It was unwarranted savagery motived by the ugliness of racism and it was captured by national media.  The sheer violence displayed by the attackers on the Edmund Pettus bridge shocked most of the country and that shock transformed into greater national support for the civil rights movement.  One of the protestors who helped organize the march, and suffered a fractured skull on the Edmund Pettus bridge, was John Lewis.   Lewis would continue to be a leader in the civil rights movement, and he continued to advocate for equality for all later in life as a congressman.  Lewis once famously said, ““Never be afraid to make some noise and get into good trouble, necessary trouble.”

I think for a lot of us though, the idea of good trouble sounds a lot better on paper than it does in practice because good trouble is still trouble.   For a lot of us getting into trouble is something we work actively against because we have had it ingrained into us that getting in trouble at all is bad.   We are taught from an early age that following the rules is a virtue and that good people do not get into trouble.   Chances are a lot of us have internalized those lessons and might even pride ourselves on being a “rules follower.”   However, when we look at the examples of faith that we are given in the bible we see examples of good trouble all over the place.   Jesus for instance got in a LOT of trouble, he got in trouble to the point of being handed a death sentence, and that trouble was all good.   In this morning’s scripture we see that trouble would follow Jesus’ disciples in the early days of the church.  Peter and John also give us an example to follow.  When it comes to obeying the rules or obeying Jesus, we should always choose Jesus even if that gets us in good trouble. 
This morning’s scripture, which is one of the lectionary readings for today, is one that picks up in the middle of the story.  Reading just this morning’s scripture is kind of like watching just the last fifteen minutes of a TV show, it is kind of possible to figure out what is going on but there is a lot missing.   So here is what you missed. Following the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the ascension of Jesus into heaven, and the coming of the Holy Spirit- the group of Jesus followers quickly grew from around 150 to 5,000.  This explosive growth made the Jewish religious leaders incredibly nervous as we find in Acts 4:1-2: “The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.  They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.”

               These religious leaders had Peter and John arrested, but they could not agree on any way to charge them with wrongdoing, so they released them but commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.   Of course, Peter and John promptly choose not to comply with this order.  The continued to heal people and preach about Jesus and the resurrection.   In response, the religious leaders arrest them again.  This time an angel comes and springs them from jail, so that when the authorities come to get Peter and John so they can question them instead of finding them in jail they find them in the temple courts talking about Jesus.  The captain of the temple guard then brings Peter and John before the Sanhedrin in this morning’s scripture. 

               In this morning’s scripture, Peter makes it clear what their motivation was:  “We must obey God rather than human beings!”  Peter and John were witnesses to the resurrection, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and fully convinced that Jesus is God’s messiah.   They were faithfully following the commands of Jesus.  They healed, because Jesus gave them the example of caring for the least of these and having compassion on others.  They preached the good new of Jesus Christ, because Jesus had commissioned them to take gospel to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.  Their motivation was not to defy the religious leaders or garner a following for themselves, their motivation was to be faithful to God. 

               The religious leaders did not see it that way though.   While Peter and John are ultimately released after this morning’s scripture, the religious leaders first have them flogged.  The traditional Jewish punishment of 40 lashes minus one.  Supposedly this was on the grounds of not honoring the authority of the religious leaders by continuing to talk about Jesus despite being ordered not to.   Peter, John, and the rest of the apostles were faithful to following Jesus, they were faithful to listening to God, and it got them in trouble, but it was good trouble. 

               Now we can easily say that in hindsight.  Looking back now, especially from the perspective of faith, it is easy for us to say that Peter and John were clearly in the right and that the religious leaders were in the wrong.  However, I am not sure that it was all that clear to those living in Jerusalem during this time.  The religious leaders they were the leaders, they were the ones who knew the Law of Moses, they were the rule enforces, and the good Jewish people of the time sought to follow the rules.  Clearly many responded to the good news proclaimed by the apostles, but there were also those who took the side of the religious leaders.  There were also who probably tried to stake a claim in the middle.   These people in the middle would have likely appreciated the good work and healings the apostles were doing but wondered why they had to always make such a disruptive scene.  They probably asked questions like “can they just heal people without always mentioning Jesus? “

The religious leaders wanted the disciples to stay quiet for a lot of reasons.  For one it made them look bad and undermined their authority.  It also threatened to upset the status quo and potentially bring about interference from the Roman Empire.  Despite that, the disciples would not be quiet.  The good news of Jesus Christ, the life changing news of the resurrection, was too important to be quiet about.  It had the potential to make too much of a difference for them to keep it to themselves.  One of the takeaways we see in this scripture is anything that is truly important, any action that will make a positive change in the world, any step of faith that will transform the world into a more loving and kind place will always, always be met with opposition. This was true for the disciples, and it continues to be true.  The message of this scripture is clear.  Obedience to God, Sharing the good news through our words and actions, treating others with kindness in the name of Jesus is always worth doing. 

 Even in a place like the United States which has religious freedom, it is still possible that faithfully following Jesus can lead to trouble.  In response to growing issues of homelessness over the past several years, two things have happened.  Churches and Christian groups have risen to the occasion to provide food and shelter to those who have none.  This is out of love and a desire to be obedient to following Jesus.  The other thing that has happened is that cities have passed ordinances, and some states have passed laws that essentially make it a crime to be homeless.  Some places have taken a different approach and instead they have passed overly restrictive laws to prohibit people or organizations from providing help to the homeless in hopes that the homeless will just leave the community. 

This is what happened in Santa Ana California, where the city went after a Christian organization that grew out of ecumenical efforts between churches called Micah’s Way. Micah’s Way provides food to homeless individuals, and the city kept passing more restrictive ordinances to stop them.  This eventually led to a court case, where the justice department intervened in 2023, and the organization was able to continue feeding people because they were doing so out of religious conviction and protected by the first amendment.  A similar court case in Texas reached a similar decision in March of 2023.  Despite that, Christians seeking to serve the least of these can still find opposition. 
This is happening right now in Ohio.  Bryan Ohio does not have social services to provide for a homeless population, and whenever there is life threatening cold conditions a church opens its doors so that people do not freeze.  Unfortunately, this church has found itself repeatedly targeted by local officials, and the pastor has even faced criminal charges for providing a place for people to escape the cold.  On the grounds of religious liberty, this case is currently working its way through the courts.  

Just like the original disciples got in trouble for being obedient to God, disciples still get in trouble for being obedient to God.   There are no doubt some who might say that Christians should be more concerned with talking about Jesus, then feeding people or providing shelter.  South African Episcopal Bishop Desmund Tutu certainly heard that criticism regularly.  He put a lot of energy and effort in providing for those who were in need and advocating for social change.   When he was told he should just focus on the gospel he responded by saying, “ I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, “Now is that political or social?” He said, “I feed you.” Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.”

This morning’s scripture is not meant to give us license to ignore the rules we do not like, but it does remind us that ultimately our highest priority is to follow Jesus.   This morning’s scripture is a reminder that following Jesus is not always easy.  It will sometimes require us to take risks and it will sometimes get us into good trouble.  This morning’s scripture urges us, despite the potential for trouble, to be obedient to God.   Being obedient God means that we share the good news of Jesus Christ, we share the good news of the resurrection.  Sometimes we share this good news with our words and proclaiming Jesus saves, but other times we share this good news with our actions- because the good news to a hungry person is bread.   

if we take seriously following Jesus, then we are going to get to a place where we have compassion and love for those around us.  Loving others means sharing the good news of salvation with them certainly, but it also means serving them.  It means ensuring their needs are met, that they are safe, and they are cared for.  If we take seriously following Jesus it will lead us to love the least of these.  It will lead us to advocating for the people who have no else sticking up for them, it will lead us to speaking out for those who feel they have no voice, and it will lead to us serving those who have been systematically under-served.   If we take seriously following Jesus then we will engage in acts of kindness in his name, and those acts have the absolute potential to transform this world into a more kind, loving, and just place. 
So may we proclaim the good news.  May we be obedient to God by following the example of Jesus of loving the least of these and having compassion for all.  May we do this, even if it gets us into some trouble- because it is good trouble.   Like Peter and John, may we fearlessly share the good news about how Jesus has won the victory. 
 
 

Scripture: Luke 13:31-35

​In 2003, our space exploration program, NASA, was badly in need of a win.  This is because the organization’s last two exploration missions to Mars had ended in disaster.  In 1998, a climate monitoring satellite was lost due to an embarrassing math error and then in 1999 an expensive polar lander failed to survive the landing.  Hoping not to get a third strike, the highly ambitious Mars rover Opportunity was launched in 2003.  The rover landed successfully and began its ninety-day mission.   After completing this mission, the rover was still operational, so NASA scientists extended the mission.  They then found ways to smartly conserve the power of the rover to keep it going.  Opportunity was the little rover that could, and it kept on keeping on.  Opportunity finally went offline due to a massive dust storm in June of 2018.  When this happened, Opportunity had operated for 57 times more than its designed lifespan and exceeded it’s initial mission by fourteen years and 47 days.  Opportunity is a testament to human ingenuity and teamwork.  The team of engineers and scientists had to work together to overcome a variety of challenges to keep the rover going thousands of miles away on a completely different planet. 

The Opportunity rover is a shining example of keeping to the mission and pressing on in the face of adversity.  While the context is completely different, this morning’s scripture gives us another example.  The gospels give us small glimpses of Jesus’s ministry which about three years.  While we have a lot of snapshot stories, we do not get a lot of details.   This morning’s scripture gives us a glimpse at some of the adversity and struggles that Jesus faced.   We also get an authentic view at how the pressure and enormity of the mission Jesus had weighs on him in his melancholy lament for Jerusalem.  In this morning’s scripture we read of Jesus’ commitment to his mission in life, and how he was determined not just to keep to the mission but to do so with compassion.   In this morning’s scripture Jesus gives us an example of how we can keep on keeping on and be faithful no matter what we face.

This morning’s scripture is one that does require a little bit of context to understand. For instance, the political situation in Israel was complex.   By the time of Jesus’ ministry Israel was divided up.  Large parts of Israel, including Jerusalem and the coastal regions were part of a Roman province administered by Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor.  Other regions were client states, small kingdoms that were ruled by the descendants of Herod the great.   The Herod mentioned in this morning’s scripture is one of those descendants.  The kingdom of Herod Agrippa consisted of the regions around the Sea of Galilee and the Eastern side of the Jordan river.  In other words, Herod Agrippa ruled the area that Jesus spent most of his ministry. 

There is debate among biblical scholars why the Pharisees warned Jesus.  Some point out that this is proof they were not all bad.  They may have disagreed with Jesus, but at this point at least they did not think he deserved death and were trying to protect him.  Others have a less generous reading of the scripture and think that the Pharisees were trying to intimidate Jesus into leaving this region and heading to neighboring Judea where Herod would have no jurisdiction.   No matter what the motivation was, the Pharisees had a point.  Herod could have been perceived as a threat to Jesus.   The gospels already established that Herod did not like prophetic truth tellers because he had arrested and executed John the Baptist.   The gospel of Luke foreshadows this threat before this morning’s scripture in chapter 9.  There it is recorded that Herod hears about the miracles that Jesus is doing, the crowds that Jesus is gathering, and how people were whispering Jesus might be a prophet of old.   To this Herod replies in Luke 9:9, “But Herod said, ‘I beheaded John.  Who, then, is this I hear such things about? ‘ “

The threat to Jesus was real, but Jesus was undeterred.  He boldly stated he would keep on with what he was doing.   He told the Pharisees he would continue to be faithful to proclaiming the good news, because Jesus knew that his appointed time had not come.  Jesus knew that when he did eventually go to Jerusalem it would not be to save his life, but to lose it.  It is as if while making this proclamation, that Jesus realizes what his eventual sacrifice would mean for the people of Jerusalem.  Jesus wanted to save them.  He uses the lovely image of a mother hen protecting her chicks, but he knows that is not possible.  He knows that the people he wishes to save are going to crucify him and turn their back on him.  The gospel of John states it most plainly in verse 1:11, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” When I read this morning’s scripture, I cannot help but hear heart break in Jesus’ voice.  Jesus had the power to do miracles, to raise the dead, and ultimately Jesus displayed the power to defeat death itself.  Yet, Jesus could not make the people accept forgiveness.  He could not force them to say yes to God’s yes of grace and acceptance, and that is why Jesus expresses such sorrow for Jerusalem. 

 Even though Jesus was under threat, and even though Jesus knew that there would be people who reject his message and the forgiveness he offered, he did not give up.  As he stated in this morning’s scripture, “In any case, I must keep going on today, tomorrow, and the next day.”  Jesus knew he had a mission to fulfill, he knew that he was going to make all things new, reconcile people with their creator, and defeat sin and death once and for all.   In a similar way, as followers of Christ today we also have a mission to fulfill.  This is because our Lord and savior commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, he urged us to do for the least of these, and he commissioned us to make disciples of all nations.
 
In our United Methodist tradition, we have taken the directives given by Christ and we have summarized that our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.   It is our mission to share the life changing, good news of Jesus Christ with people who do not yet know him so that they too may be his disciple.  It is our mission to work together to transform this world to be a more kind and loving place that better reflect the kingdom of God.   In this morning’s scripture we see Jesus is fully committed to keep on keeping on fulfilling his mission despite the potential resistance he faced and despite the weight of what he was doing.   When it come to living into our mission to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world, we can look to the example of Jesus to overcome the obstacles that we face.

 In this morning’s scripture, Jesus is distressed and saddened by the state of Jerusalem.   There is a sense of urgency and a longing to see the city saved.  One of the obstacles that we face is that we often lack the same sense of urgency.   Perhaps, we should feel a little bit more pressure to live into our mission to make disciples.  In 2007 16% of people in the United States claimed to have no religious affiliation.  Seven years later that number had risen to 20%.   Today 28% of Americans claim no religious affiliation. These are people who do not know God’s love, they do not know Jesus, and most of them do not really think much about that.   We do not need to go to the nations to make disciples, there are plenty of people right here in Rensselaer who do not know Jesus.  Our mission, as followers of Christ, is to make disciples.  It is to let these people know that Jesus loves them.  

The reality is we do not lack for people around us that we can share the good news with.  However, research shows that as American Christians the lack of urgency to do so is a real obstacle.  According to a study done by Lifeway research in 2019, over a quarter of regular church attenders do not even pray for opportunities to tell others about Jesus.   The same study found that less than half of all Christians have had a conversation about Jesus with a non-Christian in the past six-month time period.   There seems to be an especially steep lack of urgency within the United Methodist church.  In their book “Get Their Name” Bob Farr, Doug Anderson, and Kay Kotan’s research showed that the average member of a United Methodist church invites someone to come to worship with them only once every thirty-eight years. 

I understand, we are all busy.   We all have too much pulling us in too many directions.   We all have our own problems, and we all have dozens of concerns that take up all the mental bandwidth we can manage.   And yet, people need Jesus.  Rensselaer needs Jesus, and friends it is our mission to share the good news.  In this morning’s scripture, Jesus feels like he must keep on, he longs to gather people to know him.  If we are being honest, we all know that our to-do list is never going to get finished.  Things are never going truly slow down in a little bit.  If we want to make disciples, at some point we have to choose just do it.  I am not saying that we need to be going door to door, but we need to be more willing to share Jesus when God gives us the opportunity to do so.  In the very least, can we all please (please) agree to invite someone to come to church with us more than once every thirty-eight years? 

When it comes to the transforming the world part of our mission statement, one of the other obstacles we face is the enormity of it all.  It is not hard to look around and begin to identify things that are wrong, to see ways that our world is deeply broken, and see problems that desperately need someone to fix them.   However, it is a much more difficult thing to do anything about it.  When we look at the ways that generational poverty impacts people, that systemic sins like racism continue to rear their ugly head, or the ways that global exploitation and inequality causes problems it is much hard to figure out how we can do anything about it.  In the face of such big problems, under the shadow of such incredible darkness, and staring down so much evil it seems anything that we could possibly do is so inconsequential it would not even matter. 

Jesus came to change the world.  This morning’s scripture gives us a hint that he faced some stiff opposition, but he still kept on.   Even if we cannot fix the world’s problems we can still transform it through our actions.   There is a story that speaks about this.  It is an old story that has been around for a while, so you might have heard it before, but it is a tale that resonates deeply with me.  Along a coastline a strong storm blew in and greatly churned waters.   The next morning the beaches were littered with whole hosts of sea creatures that the waves had stranded on the sand.   Several people came out to gawk and see the spectacle of the debris.  They were surprised to notice one young boy walking the beach, finding star fish and throwing them back into the ocean.   One man went down and asked this boy what he was doing, he simply replied, “Saving star fish.”   The man, not really satisfied with that answer asked, “Why?”   The boy, not quite sure what the man was not understanding replied, “Because they need saving.”   Perhaps this man was just having a bad day, but he did not find this boy’s naive outlook very endearing.  He bluntly stated, “Why bother?   Look how many have washed up on this beach there is no way one little boy can save all of them.   Even if you do, they are just starfish.  What does it matter?”   The young boy reached down, grabbed a washed-up star fish, through it back in the sea and replied, “It matters to that one.”  

In this morning’s scripture we get a glimpse at the opposition and struggles that Jesus faced in fulfilling his God given mission.  We see how the weight of what Jesus was doing, was pulling on Jesus.   Yet, we also see how Jesus was committed to keep on keeping on.  We also have our own mission to make disciples and transform the world.  We face obstacles, but may we be willing to keep on today, tomorrow, and the next day.   May God give us a sense of urgency to share the good news and may we be willing to help people, because even if it is just one person- it matters to that one.   Trinity United Methodist Church, as followers of Jesus it is our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  So may we keep on keeping on.   
 

When the very first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896, fencing was one of the sports included and it has been part of every Olympiad since.   Fencing only really coalesced as a sport shortly before those first Olympics.   The first officially recognized fencing tournament was not held until 1880, and it was not until 1894 that an internationally agreed upon rule set for fencing was adopted.  Starting in 1894 three different forms of fencing were recognized: foil, epee, and saber.   However, in 2019 the road was opened for a new fencing style. In 2019 The French Fencing Federation, which is one of the more influential international federations, formally recognized lightsaber as an official fencing technique.  With this recognition they created standards, rules of play, and all the other trappings that are part of international fencing.   This means in France, lightsaber dueling is an officially recognized sport.  It also means that over time more national fencing federations around the world might also recognize lightsaber dueling so that someday it could even be an Olympic sport. 
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There are fencing clubs in Indiana that will teach lightsaber as a technique (sadly not any that close to here).  It does not matter if the fencing technique is lightsaber or something much older like saber, the basic concepts are the same.   One side attacks, the other side attempts to block which in fencing is to parry, and then the blocker attempts to riposte which is striking back quickly after a parry.  This riposte is a new attack that must now be parried.  This continues until one side scores a hit or one side pulls back and disengages.  Attack-parry-riposte is the basic flow of all forms of fencing, including lightsaber.  It is also the same pattern that we see in this morning’s scripture.  The devil attacks, Jesus parries, and there is a back and forth with the devil trying to find a weakness in Jesus.

This morning’s scripture is a well-known one.  The temptation of Jesus appears in some form in the gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke.   By the traditional lectionary, this story in some form is the gospel lesson during the first Sunday of Lent.   In all versions of the scripture right after being baptized Jesus is taken away by the Spirit to the wilderness. It is commonly assumed that this wilderness is the area between Jericho and Jerusalem.  This is a dry desert reason.  While Jesus was in this region he fasted for 40 days.  He would have been hungry and weak.  In this morning’s scripture it states, “for forty days he was tempted by the devil.”  The gospel of Luke alone implies that Jesus faced temptations throughout the forty days, but all three gospels that have this story contains the same three temptations. 

While none of us have ever been offered power over all the kingdoms of the world Like Jesus was, that particular temptation shares elements with more common temptations.  If we take the three temptations that Jesus faced and break them down to what is really behind these temptations, then we can see that they are like the temptations we face.  We can learn from how Jesus handled these temptations so when we are confronted by the desire to act sinfully, we can parry and riposte successfully. 

The first temptation that Jesus faced was to turn stone into bread.  This does not seem like a big deal.  After all, Jesus endured a fast longer than most of us could handle.  He was in real need of food.  It does not seem unreasonable for Jesus to use his power to keep himself nourished.  Except it was by the leading of God’s spirit that Jesus was out in the wilderness.  The long fast was clearly a directive from God.   The temptation here is to obey God or meet his physical needs.  The first temptation of Jesus was one that asked him to prioritize himself over obedience to God.   While none of us would have faulted Jesus for making stones into bread, the general temptation here is one of selfishness.  All the temptations Jesus faces in this morning’s scripture are dialed up to eleven and are the most extreme examples.  Yet, we face similar temptations as this one.  When we are just a little uncomfortable, we are much likely to focus on ourselves than pay attention to others or be obedient to God. 

Many of the temptations we face daily are ones that are selfish in nature.  Many of the temptations we face regularly are ones that center ourselves at the expense of others.  We face these kinds of temptations so often; we sometimes do not even properly recognize them as being tempted to sinful actions.  This is because we are all amazing at justifying our actions.   It does not matter how selfish or self-centered someone’s actions are, People tend to be really good at coming up with reasons why it is OK this one time to do whatever it is. A small example we have all encountered is the person with a nice car who purposely parks so that they take up multiple spots to keep anyone from parking close to them.  It seems this never happens during down times when there is a ton of space, and these people never tend to the back of the parking lot.  They seem to always do this closer to the front and the park so that their car effectively takes up at least three spaces.  Even though it is a jerk move, the person who does this has likely rationalized in their mind why it is acceptable for them to act that way.  They see their actions as perfectly justifiable, because they are putting themselves above all else.   Whenever we have a self-centered want it is not hard for us to succumb to the temptation to perceive that want as a need and then justify our actions as to how we meet that perceived need.    This first temptation is one of selfishness, to put ourselves first.  We regularly face temptations to do things that put ourselves first above loving our neighbors or loving God.   

The second temptation that Jesus faced is perhaps the most straightforward.  Devil offered Jesus power.  We all know the proverb: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”   We have all seen this.  From the school yard bully who pushes around smaller kids because they can, to the middle manager who terrorizes employees because they can, to the international dictators who invade other countries because they can.  We have all seen and unfortunately many of have suffered the consequences of someone else’s sinful acts motivated by a desire for power.  Think of all the lies, the people hurt, and broken lives that have been created in human history for the quest of power.   Jesus was offered more power than any one person has ever been offered, so he understands the alluring temptation that power offers.  Yet, Jesus once again  parries the devil and quotes scripture.  Jesus once again focuses on God, and Jesus shows us that instead of seeking power to rule our petty little kingdoms we should worship and serve the one and true Almighty God. 

The final temptation Jesus faced was more of a dare.  The temple complex in Jerusalem was built on a hill overlooking a valley.  In the time of Jesus, it had been thoroughly developed and at one place from the top of the wall to the bottom of the valley would have been about 450 ft in the day of Jesus.  This is the spot the devil took Jesus, dared him to jump and have the angels catch him.   This was an appeal to Jesus’ pride.   Like Jesus was here, we are also tempted by pride regularly.   This temptation comes in the form of a challenge, and often that is how we are tempted into pride as well.  We feel challenged, and we are so convinced our rightness we refuse to back down no matter the cost.  Pride is when we think too much of our own selves.  Pride is when we refuse to admit we might be wrong, refuse to apologize, or when we refuse to consider the position or feelings of others.   It is the opposite of humility and pride is one of the great catalysts of sinful actions.  C.S. Lewis points this out in Mere Christianity.   He wrote, “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” 

We do not face the exact temptations that Jesus faced but we face the same kinds of temptations.  If you think about all the wrong in the world, then many of the ways that people are mean and unkind to one another can trace back to selfishness, lust for power, or pride. These are temptations that all of us face.   The particulars might look different for each of us, but we are tempted in much the same way Jesus was.  We face temptations daily, and they can often be hard for us to parry. Temptations have a nasty way of turning into bad habits which can become lifestyle choices or crippling addictions.  It can feel like we are bombarded by cultural messages, peer pressure, and our own personal demons to give into temptations.  It can all be so much that it can seem impossible to block, much less riposte and push back.  Jesus being fully God and fully man, knows the temptations we face and Jesus showed us how to deal with them.  

It is worth noting just how little Jesus engages with Devil in this morning’s scripture.   Devil is attempting to tempt Jesus, and Jesus barely gives him the time of day.  We do not see Jesus arguing with Devil, we do not see him trying to put the devil in his place or fighting in anyway.  It is less an epic duel, and more Jesus swatting away an annoyance. In fact, the only thing that Jesus says to the devil are quotes from scripture. 

  By quoting scripture, Jesus does more than just say “no” to the devil’s temptations. Every time Jesus is tempted in this morning’s story, he quotes scripture so that he focuses on the right thing.  He quotes scripture, but notice the scripture that Jesus quotes.  Each one connects to his relationship with the Father.   Jesus resist temptation by leaning into his relationship with God.   Jesus says no to the darkness by clinging to the light.  This is an example we should follow.   When it comes to the temptations, we face we tend to overcomplicate it.   We constantly are thinking of ways to justify our behavior.  We are constantly looking for reasons why this time it is OK, because it is an exception. Or we create arbitrary lines so that our selfish or prideful behavior is excusable because at least we did not go across that line.  Following the example of Jesus though cuts right through all of these games we play with ourselves. 

 Instead of making how we wrestle with our temptation complex, we can make it simple.   Every time we are tempted we face a choice, and we can boil that choice down to the most common denominator.  The choice is to say yes to temptation and take a step away from God or we say no to temptation and take a step closer to God.  We either say yes to what tempts us or we say yes to God, we cannot do both.   So let’s follow the example of Jesus and lean into our relationship with God.  

We will not always get it right.  Instead of parrying the temptation and riposting into our relationship with God, the temptation will land. There will still be times where we fall short where we say yes to something else other than God.   When that happens, we also face a choice.  We can fall into guilt, we can allow temptation to gain a stronger foothold as we continue to give in.   We can be weighed down by the weight of our shame and guilt or we can turn back to God.   We can confess or sins, we can repent, we can believe the gospel and we can be forgiven again.  The blood of Christ is strong enough to break every chain.  Even if we have wandered down a dark path, God the Father will always accept us back with open arms.

This morning’s scripture is a hopeful reminder that like Jesus we too can resist sin, but this morning’s scripture is a realistic reminder that all too often we miss the mark.   Perhaps that is why the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is traditionally read at the start of lent.   May we not lust after power or in selfishness focus on ourselves in prideful ways. Like Jesus may we be quick to turn to scripture and may we strive to keep our focus on hearts, our minds, and our souls focused on God.   In this season of lent may we fully to commit to repent and believe the gospel.   
 
 

Scripture:  Luke 9:28-36

 Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of this country and third president of the United States, might be best known for being the author of the Declaration of Independence.   The foundational document famously contains these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”  In the Declaration of Independence, we get a glimpse of Jefferson’s faith.  However, the faith that Thomas Jefferson held is one that deviates greatly from the Christianity that many of us profess and believe today.   We know this, because Thomas Jefferson created his own edit of the gospels.  The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible, is a work that he composed.  He did this by literally cutting sections out of the four gospels and piecing them together to create one document that Jefferson believed capture the essence of Jesus’ life and teachings.   In doing so Jefferson left out a lot, specifically anything that seemed supernatural, including the resurrection.   Jefferson did this because he personally did not believe in the truth of those elements of the gospel, so he literally removed the parts of the bible he disagreed with.   Needless to say, this morning’s scripture did not make Jefferson’s cut. 

Thomas Jefferson believed that the miracles of Jesus like walking on water were based in superstition not in reality.  His edit of the gospels was his attempt to create what he believed to be a more factual or authentic view of Jesus.  Jefferson is not alone in this.   Since the time of Jefferson there have been scholars who have strived to capture the historical Jesus.  Even to this day, there is a steady trickle of academically minded books that are published to further explore and define the historical Jesus.  A lot of this work focuses heavily on the culture and time that Jesus lived and how these forces shaped Jesus as a man.  Much of the work focused on the historical Jesus defines Jesus only as a person in a particular time and place.  Like Thomas Jefferson, the majority of it discounts the more supernatural elements. 
I do think there is a lot of wisdom to considering the historical context and we can learn a lot from serious scholar inquiry into the culture of Jesus’ time.  However, this morning’s scripture is a reminder that Jesus is more than just a historical figure.   Jesus is more than just a man, and the only way to ignore this is to cut out whole parts of the bible.  This morning’s scripture reminds us that Jesus is the son of God and this morning’s scripture helps us realize how we should relate to Jesus the Christ, when his glory is fully revealed. 
 
 The story of Jesus’ transfiguration is found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  While all three gospels have minor differences in the details they emphasize, all three gospels agree on the major details.   All three gospels have Jesus taking Peter, John, and James up a mountain to pray.  While there have been some historical disagreements about where this took place, most biblical scholars today agree that the mountain in question is Mount Hermon.  This is the largest mountain in Northern Israel, reaching over 9,000 feet, and the summit is snowcapped.  This was not just a brief hike.  This morning’s scripture implies that the event of the transfiguration happened at night and woke the disciples up.  So Jesus and the disciples had journeyed aways into the wilderness as they ascended the mountain. 
 
In all three gospels, the story of the transfiguration takes place about one week after Jesus ask his disciples “but what about you?  Who do you say I am?” and Peter answers, “God’s messiah.”   It is then in the transfiguration that Jesu’s glory is revealed.   Jesus meets with Moses, the keeper of the covenant that makes God the God of the Israelites and the Israelites the people of God.   Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of the covenant.  As God’s messiah it is through Jesus is through him that all people can become God’s people.   While transfigured Jesus meets with Elijah as well.  The prophet Malachi declares that Elijah will come before the day of the Lord, the day that God deals with sin and evil once and for all.  As the messiah, Jesus did this.  His atoning sacrifice defeats sin and death and reconciles us to God.   Just in case Peter, James, and John missed all of this, God the Father even declares this “This is my Son, whom I have chosen, listen to him.” 

It is truly a remarkable scene.  It is a story that is included in these three gospels to explicitly make the point that Jesus is not just another man.   It is a story that confronts us with the divinity of Jesus.   It must have been an incredible sight, and one that was overwhelming.  This morning’s scripture records after it was all over “the disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.”   The gospels make it clear that Peter is not afraid to talk, yet even he is stunned into silence by what he witnessed.  Perhaps, if we put ourselves in the disciples’ shoes it is easy to see why they felt this way, and we get a glimpse of how we can best relate to and interact with Jesus. 

 I can only begin to imagine what witnessing the transfiguration must have been like for Peter, John, and James.   They were woken up by a bright light and a lot of commotion.  I wonder if they were confused at first, unsure if they were dreaming or if this was real life.  All three gospels struggle to convey what the disciples saw, and they all choose different imagery to get the idea across.  Here in the gospel of Luke, the description is that the clothes of Jesus became as bright as a flash of lightning.   One of the details that I wonder about, is how did the disciples know who Jesus was talking to.  The implication is that they must have heard something of the conversation Jesus was having with them to deduce that the two people Jesus was talking to were Moses and Elijah.  Again, I must wonder what was going through the minds of the disciples when they realized this.   Moses is a person they would have been taught to look up to and emulate their whole life.   It truly must have been incredible for them.  It is no wonder they were silent; how could they begin to find the words to describe something so amazing and beyond explanation?

Despite how just awe-inspiring it must have all been, Peter had to say something.  As I already stated, Peter is not afraid to talk, so he interrupts this divine moment to offer to build three shelters, one each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  I especially like how in this morning’s scripture reading, Luke adds a parenthetical comment of “He did not know what he was saying” to drive home the absurdity of what he was offering.   Yet, perhaps we should not be too hard on Peter.  He was likely thinking back to the stories that he had learned in the bible.   Multiple times in the Old Testament, when someone had an encounter with God they would build a structure and give it a special name.   One example of this in Genesis, after Jacob encounter God in a dream, Jacob builds a pillar of rocks and calls the place Bethel, meaning house of God.   Perhaps, that is the kind of thing that Peter had in mind.   Peter wanted to commemorate this event, freeze it in time, and make it a moment of great importance that could be celebrated and venerated for years to come. 

Honestly, we probably are not that different from Peter.  This was a profound, spiritual experience for Peter.  He saw before him the heroes of his faith, and he saw the glory of God messiah fully revealed.   Today, when someone has an encounter that has immense spiritual importance to them or when someone feels the presence of God in a powerful way it is referred to as a mountain top experience.  Often these mountain top experiences become formative in the lives of people.  They become moments that they look back on with fondness and they often hope to recrate that same feeling in the future.  We may not build little monuments to commemorate these moment, but in our memories we certainly enshrine these holy encounters.   In this morning’s scripture Peter wanted to do the same when he had a literal mountain top experience with Jesus.   However, in doing this he kind of missed the point in a couple of ways.  

First, Peter wanted to build these structures to memorialize the transfiguration.  He wanted a lasting monument to the time that Jesus was transformed before him and radiated as brightly as the lightening flashes.  He wanted this spot to be remembered where the glory of the messiah was fully revealed.  The point that Peter misses here, is that for Jesus this was not necessarily anything special.   What changed is how Peter saw Jesus, who Jesus was did not change.  The bright and radiate messiah, chosen by God is who Jesus always has and always has been.  Peter saw Jesus as he is in this morning’s scripture, but that does not mean Jesus was transformed or changed.   The bright, glowing Jesus and the regular Jesus at the beginning and the end of this morning’s scripture are the same person.

This is where I think the quest for the historical Jesus misses the mark.  Jesus the historical man and Jesus the son of God are the same Trying to only focus on the humanity of Jesus while ignoring Jesus as the glorious messiah is an attempt to keep Jesus manageable.   If he is reduced to only a man who managed to have a large influence on history, then Jesus can be just another remarkable historical figure.  A smaller, less magnificent Jesus is easier for us to handle.  It is easier for us to keep Jesus in a nicely contained box in our lives, instead of being overwhelmed by his goodness, his glory, and his grace.  When people take the Thomas Jefferson route and cut out the parts of the bible that point to Jesus’ divinity, then it makes it so they do not have to bow down and worship Jesus as Lord and God.  

There is danger in going the other way as well and only focusing on the divinity of Jesus.  This gets closer to how Peter specifically missed the point.  When we only focus on the glorified version of Jesus, then we overly spiritualize Jesus.  We make Jesus a person that we can only meet in holy places and the only response we can have is one of awe and worship.   However, doing this means we forget the very first thing Jesus said to his disciples- the first thing he said to Peter.   He did not say worship me, he said follow me.   When we focus only on the divine and spiritual side of Jesus, we run the risk of making Jesus a place we come to worship and not a teacher to follow.        

 The second way that Peter missed the point is in how he tried to honor Jesus.   His whole idea of building shelters was misguided, but his heart was in the right place.  He suggested it because he wanted to honor Jesus.  Like Peter we should want to honor Jesus.  We should want to honor him because Jesus is fully God and fully man.   He is the glorious messiah shining like the brightest light and he is the Son of Man who was obedient to the point of death on a cross.  He is the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the living water, and the Great shepherd.  He is savior who defeated sin and death and he is the great rescuer who brought about forgiveness for each one of us.  He is the son of God whose glory has been revealed.  

We should seek to honor Jesus but building monuments to commemorate a moment is not the best way to honor him.  We do not honor Jesus by building taller steeples or putting religious monuments in public spaces.     Fortunately, in this morning’s scripture we are told the best way to do this.  In fact, it is God the father who tells us this.  The best way we can honor Jesus, as God says, is to “listen to him.” We honor Jesus by listening to him.  

Jesus told us to love God with all of our being and to seek the kingdom of God above all else.  Jesus gave us a new command to love one another, so that we may best learn to care for the needs of the world.  Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves and set an example of love that is sacrificial.  He pointed out the people we should be extending this care and kindness to are the least of these, those who are most in need of care and inclusion.   If we want to honor Jesus then we listen to him and we actually do it. 

 So may we not put Jesus in a box by trying to define him too narrowly.   May we not seek to turn Jesus into a memorial that we only come to when we want to find or relive a mountain top experience.  Instead, may we see Jesus as he truly is, the messiah, the son of God, the savior of the world.   And may, please, listen to him. 
              
 

Scripture:  Luke 6:27-38

 I had a class in high school where the teacher loved to give group projects.  Almost every week there was some project that was supposed to be done throughout the week and then presented on Friday.  I became popular in that class among a certain group of students, and they would all scramble to claim I was their partner.  This is because they knew that if they did not do their part of the group work, I would just do end up doing it for them.  I wanted to get it done and I wanted a decent grade and more often than not the most efficient way to accomplish both of those things was to just do it myself.  While it was not as bad in higher education, in both college and even in seminary I was involved in group projects where I ended up covering the work of someone else.  Whether it was for school or work, chances are most of us have experiences where a person did not pull their weight on a group project, someone else covered for them, but the person who did not do the work gets the same grade and recognition as everyone else. 

At some point we have probably all heard the pithy proverb “work smarter, not harder.”  The idea behind this is to always find the most efficient way to get the job done. However, some people twist this a little bit, and they see working smarter and not harder as figuring out how to do the least amount of work and still get paid.  The person who does not really contribute to a group project might be a more common example, but other people take this idea to the next level.  Perhaps one of the most incredible examples is Joaquin Garcia, a low-level bureaucrat from Spain.    His job could be done at one of two locations, a water treatment plant or a central office.   He told the treatment plant he would be at the central office, and he told the central office he was at the water treatment plant.  In fact, he was at home doing whatever he wanted.   He pulled this lie for an amazing fourteen years, and he only got caught when he was to be recognized for twenty years of loyal service, and no one could find him.   Being able to do the minimum amount of work and still get paid is a balancing act that requires an odd level of skill, this is why when sociologist Roland Paulsen wrote his article about the subject for the Atlantic Magazine, he entitled it “The Art of Not Working.”  
 
The art of not working is all about getting the most you can while giving the least.  There are many who try to build their life of this philosophy, and there are some who would insist this is just practical wisdom and clever living.  In this morning’s scripture, Jesus describes a different way to live.   Jesus describes the art of grace, which is the opposite of the art of not working.  The art of grace is all about giving the most and being at peace with receiving the least.    The art of not working is all about finding ways to not work harder for personal benefit, but the art of grace is all about working harder to be more like God.

This morning’s scripture has similarities to a section of the sermon on the mount found in the fifth chapter of the gospel of Matthew.  However, the gospel of Luke once again tends to be a little bit more into the nitty gritty of everyday life.  For instance, the gospel of Matthew states to pray for those who persecute you, and this morning’s scripture does state something similar in pray for those who mistreat you.   Now praying for someone, even someone who has been unkind to us, is something that we might begrudgingly do.  However, this morning’s scripture takes it a bit further.  Not only should we pray for them.  Jesus tells us to do good for those who hate us.   Jesus tells us if anyone who takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.  Jesus then sums up why we should be willing to do these things in verse 31: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” 

Since the 1600s, this has been referred to as the golden rule.  There is a decent chance that even someone without a church background could give you a decent paraphrase if you asked the, “What is the golden rule?”   Not just as Christians, but as society, we seem to recognize this teaching of Jesus as important.  Despite that we collectively do not always do our best at following it.   In fact, so much of conventional wisdom seems to go against this teaching of Jesus.

For years I have seen social media memes that some might describe as “tough love” memes.  I imagine the people who make these posts like to think they are “Just telling it like it is.”   These posts meant to be shared and re-shared over and over again will have matter of the fact statements such as “Respect is not given, it is earned” or “facts do not care about your feelings”, These could be seen as hardy salt of the earth proverbs, but the problem is they all go against the golden rule.   Because if respect is earned not given then that means we do not need to treat someone with respect until they meet the standard we set as right.   If facts are always more important than feelings, then that gives us permission to ignore the feelings of those we disagree with.  This is not how any of us want to be treated.  We do not want to be judged by someone else’s arbitrary, subjective standard or have how we feel ignored. These are not tough love statements, because there is no love in them.  In the same way, it is common to encounter people who believe, “If you respect me, I will respect you.”  They often declare this belief as if it is a fair statement that grants them some sort of moral high ground.  Yet this is a statement that Jesus directly refutes in this morning’s scripture. 

In verses 32-33: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners do that.”   There is nothing good or godly about being respecting the people who you think have earned it.  It is not much of a virtue to claim we are kind to those who have proven they are worth our kindness.   In fact, the beauty of the art of grace we do not need to prove ourselves to receive it.   Thanks be to God for that amazing truth, because we would all be in a sorry state if we had to earn grace.   

Treating others the way that we want to be treated, means we let go of our standards of behavior and measurements we try to hold people to.  It means we give others the benefit of the doubt and we treat people with a basic level of dignity and respect even if they have nothing to earn that basic level of dignity and respect.   We should be willing to do that for others, because God was willing to treat us mercifully even when we did not deserve it.   In Romans Paul writes about this: “All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.”  We have all done what we know is wrong, we have all made the willful choice to put ourselves first, we have all acted in ways that cause harm and deny God’s goodness.  By God’s standard we are all ungrateful and wicked.   If God used the standard of “respect is earned, not given” we would all be rightfully doomed.
 
Thankfully, that is not God’s standard.   God is a God of Holy Perfection, God is a God of justice, but God is also a God of extravagant mercy.  It can be seen consistently throughout the entirety of scripture that God consistently chooses side of mercy.   After stating we all fall short of the glory of God, Paul makes this clear in Romans when he writes this beautiful truth: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

 Do to others as you would have them to do, is all about treating other people the way that we want to treated.  It is about treating others the way that God treats us.   Ultimately the way we want to be treated is with grace and mercy.   Treating other people in the same way is the art of grace.  Unlike the art of not working, the art of grace is in fact hard work.  It requires us to actively put others first.  When it comes to doing that in our lives, I think there are two things we should keep in mind as we learn how to be more grace-full people. 

First, we should consider verse 35 of this morning’s scripture.   Here Jesus reiterates that we should love our enemies and be good to them.  The example he gives for how we do this is give to them without expecting to get anything back.  We should do this because God is merciful, and God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.   Far too often, we tend to shun mercy and kindness because we assume the worst of people.  We hold those in need with cynicism and suspicion instead of mercy.  We should follow the teachings of Jesus and the example of God the father and lead with mercy.   Instead, cynically assuming people in need are just trying to take advantage of the system, we should try to meet the needs of others if we can.

 I understand there are bad apples out there.  I understand there is a need for wisdom and discernment, but we should not let jaded cynicism or assuming the worst stop us from helping people.  If we were truly in need, we would want people to help us out, so that is what we should do for others.  We should show mercy to others.  If it turns out they are trying to scam us out of a few bucks, then come the day of judgement that is on them.   We should strive to be faithful in being merciful, doing good for all, giving without expecting anything back, and being kind to everyone, even the ungrateful and wicked.  Because that is the way that God treats us.  

Second, this morning’s scripture is all about how we relate to our enemies.  It addresses how we are to respond to those who have wronged us.  Jesus challenges us to reconsider who we label enemies and why do that in the first place.    It is frightfully easy to take those who we disagree with or who seem incredibly different and brand them our enemies.  This is often done by labeling others as “those people”, we instantly create an “us vs. them” scenario.  When we do that, it becomes very natural to say things like “respect is earned not given” to those who we consider not us.

When we tear down those “us vs them” walls it becomes much easier to love others.  We should realize that all people belong to the same group, specifically all people need Jesus.   Saints and sinners, friends and enemies, us and them- we all need Jesus.   Instead of lumping people into little categories we should draw the circle wide to include everyone, because there is only one category of people, we should put people in and that is the category of people who need Jesus.   I need Jesus, you need Jesus, we all need Jesus. Out of God’s endless mercy, God has sent his only son, that all who believe in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God has been merciful to us, and when we realize that we are in the same category of people who need Jesus it is easier for us to be merciful to everyone else.
 
 In this morning’s scripture, Jesus challenges our default assumptions and urges us to lead with grace.  This can be hard work, because it requires us to put others first and to lead with mercy.  Yet, it is worthwhile because as Jesus states in this morning’s scripture, “your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High.”  So may we lay aside our cynical attitudes and may we be willing to treat people with mercy and compassion.  May we not divide others into categories or label anyone our enemy, but may we recognize and value the sacred worth of all people.  May we be kind to others the way that God is kind towards us, may we love the way that Jesus loves.   Using mercy, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness as your colors of choice may your life be a beautiful masterpiece that illustrates the art of grace.    
 

Scripture:  Luke 6:17-26

Often one of the qualities that some of our most loved movies have in common regardless of the genre or when they were released is how quotable they are.  Many of us likely have beloved quotes from some of our favorite movies that are often floating around somewhere in the back of our minds.   Given how much we love a good movie quote, it is odd just how often we get them wrong.  For instance, one of my absolute favorite movies is Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and arguably the most well-known quote form that movie is “Luke, I am Your Father.”  But that line does not actually appear in the movie.  In the same way nowhere in all of Star Trek television or movies does Captain Kirk ever say the phrase “Beam me up Scotty.”   There are dozens and dozens of examples of movie quotes that are misremembered.  Often it is just a simple issue of remembering the scenes but not getting the words quite right.  However, there are a few instances that are a real head scratcher.  For instance, one of the supposed most well-known quotes from the movie Casablanca is “Play it again Sam.”  That line is not anywhere in the movie, the closest is a character saying, “Play it once Sam, for old times’ sake.”, which is not even that close.  For whatever reason, there are some quotes from movies that we tend to collectively remember incorrectly, and the incorrect quote is what becomes the one spread far and wide.
          
  I would not fault you if you thought something similar was happening with this morning’s scripture.  Because this morning’s scripture might sound familiar to us.  One of Jesus’ best-known teachings are the “beatitudes” a series of “blessed are” statements.  This morning scripture sounds very similar but also may not sound quite right.   Unlike misremembered movie quotes, that is not quite what is happening here.   It turns out in the gospels there are two versions of the beatitudes.   The more familiar version is found in the gospel of Matthew where this morning’s scripture comes from the gospel of Luke. There are some minor but fairly important differences between these two versions.  For instance, the first statement found in Matthew is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, where Luke records “blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” 

The statements of blessing in Matthew tend to be spiritualized whereas the statements in Luke tend to be focused on the physical conditions of the people Jesus is speaking to.   This morning’s scripture from Luke also contains statements of woe which Matthew does not have.  So given those differences it is not surprising that the Matthew blessing statements are the more popular and more well-known ones.  They tend to feel a lot safer and more comfortable.  This morning’s scripture really presses against some of the culture messages we are inundated with.  This morning’s scripture can cause us to question our assumptions about what it means to be blessed, but this morning’s scripture can also point us to how we can more authentically be a disciple of Jesus. 

Blessed is a tricky word to define.  Like a lot of abstract concepts, it is an idea we feel like we have an understanding of but it is an idea we struggle too fully articulate.  The opposite of being blessed is being cursed, and that is a state we generally want to avoid.  So often we usually hear people claim they feel blessed when the circumstances of life work out in a way to give feelings of happiness or peace.  We often reduce the idea of being blessed to an attitude of focusing on the positive rather than the negative.   While focusing on the good in our lives instead of dwelling on the hardship can do wonders for our general outlook, it is kind of hard to square that understanding of being blessed with what we find in the bible, especially in this morning’s scripture.   Because poverty, hunger, sorrow, and being hated are objectively not great places to find oneself.  Yet, those are the very qualities that are lifted up in this scripture as being blessed, which really brings about the question what does it mean to be blessed? 

We find the concept of being blessed throughout the bible.  The way blessing and being blessed are described are varied with a lot of depth throughout the bible, but a common trend does emerge.  Being blessed means to have God’s attention.  The blessed in the bible are the people that God has a special care for.  To be blessed means that God has a specific concern for you.  Blessings, which are often positive in the bible, are the physical results that come from being blessed.  Often when we count our blessings, we consider the positive in our life to be an indication that we are blessed, but it often works the opposite in the Bible.  Being blessed does not mean comfort or an overabundance of blessings.  Being blessed means that God has a special care for you.   In that light, this morning’s scripture begins to make more sense. 

 When Jesus says blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry, and blessed are you who weep, that is exactly what he is saying.  Those are the people who are blessed.  This is not to say that Jesus is glorifying or idealizing poverty, but rather Jesus is reinforcing a theme found throughout scripture.   Consistently throughout scripture God is on the side of the poor, the downtrodden, the oppressed, and the marginalized.   Throughout the bible God is the protector, defender, and ultimate advocate for the poor.  Psalm 146 gives a good example of this.  Verses 7-9 state, “He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.  The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts u those who are bowed down.  The LORD loves the righteous.  The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow.”

  The poor, the hungry, the oppressed are blessed because God’s favor and protection is upon them.   This is a reality in the kingdom of God.   In their book Deep Justice in a Broken World Chap Clark and Kara Powell put it this way, “Any biblically rooted understanding of the kingdom of God cannot be separated from God’s commitment to uphold justice by providing for the needy . . . God who reigns over all of creation looks upon the brokenness of his children, and in his mercy takes special favor of behalf of those most affected by humanity’s sin and rebellion.”  Those who have been systematically impacted and hurt by the broken and fallen state of the world are the ones God has special care for, and that is why they are blessed. 

Even if a fuller understanding of a biblical notion of blessed, this morning’s scripture can still be difficult for us because of the statements of woe.  I do think the beginning of verse 20 is key to understanding this morning’s scripture.   It states, “Looking at his disciples, he said . . .”   This morning statements of blessing and woe were not a general teaching but were directed to his twelve closest disciples, and that context is incredibly important.

 This morning’s scripture takes place early in the ministry of Jesus.  The scripture that immediately precedes this morning’s is when Jesus had finalized picking the twelve.  Then this morning’s scripture begins with a great number of people gathering.  I imagine what this had to be like for the 12 disciples.  They had just been honored by Jesus to be chosen as one of his closest followers.   Now a large crowd from all over has assembled, they spent the day watching Jesus do miracle after miracle.   I imagine those twelve men had to be overflowing with excitement.  They had to feel like they were on the ground level of something that was going to be big.  They saw how huge the crowd was, and they might have thought this was only the beginning.   Perhaps they saw fame in Jesus’ future which also meant fame in their future.  Just like today they would have known that fame leads to influence and power and wealth.   I have to wonder if any of the disciples that day felt like they had hit the jackpot, they had hitched their wagon to the right star, and they were on their way to having it made. 

If any of the disciples felt that way, then when Jesus looked at his disciples and delivered the statements of blessings and woe, it would have been a dose of reality that re-grounded them in what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus.   Jesus starts by reminding them who God is for and concerned about, which means the people that Jesus is concerned for.    Jesus then reminds them that if their focus is on wealth, comfort, and reputation then their focus is on temporary earthly things and not on heavenly things.  If our focus in on ourselves and on what we can get, then our focus is not on God.   It also means that our focus is not where God is focused and we are not focused where Jesus was focused.

Jesus’ message in this morning’s scripture was meant not for the multitudes, but it was meant for his closest followers.   If you consider yourself a disciple or if you consider Jesus to be your Lord and Savior that means the truth of this scripture is that it was intended for you to hear.   This means the first aspect of this scripture, that God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed, is for us to hear.  If God’s focus is on those who are the most without and the most in need, then that is where our focus should be.  If God is the protector and defender of the poor and marginalized, then it means those are the people we should be seeking to help and shelter as well.  The poor, the hungry, the hurt, the hated are the people this morning’s scripture defines as blessed because God is on their side.  Perhaps as the people of God, it is our job to be the blessings for those who are so blessed.   As the body of Christ, as the hand and feet of Jesus, we should have compassion for those that God cares about and seek to meet their needs. 

In the same way the dose reality the woes hit the original disciples with should also re-center us on what it means to follow Jesus.  These woes are the inverse of the four “blessed are you” statements.   They point us to where our focus in life should not be.  We cannot be sharing the love of God and being a living example of Christian witness if our focus is on the things that Jesus pronounced woe upon.   If our focus is on accumulating more and more wealth then we are not going to be very good at generously providing for others the way that God generally provides for us.  In the same way if all our time, energy and effort goes to make ourselves comfortable, to create an environment where we never weep, then we cannot see the great hurts in the world.  If we do not see the hurts, then we cannot join God in trying to tend to those hurts. 

 There is a lot of hurt in this world.  There is a lot of injustice and pain in the world, and if the magnitude never brings us to tears then it’s because we are intentionally ignoring it.   For instance, current data estimates 10 children die a minute from preventable causes.  In the past half hour that is over 300 children, half of which are infants who died and did not have to.  That SHOULD cause us to weep.   It should break our hearts.  If our focus is on acquiring wealth, getting the finest food in life, and ensuring we are always happy and comfortable then our focus cannot be on God, or the people God wants us to focus on.  I know we do not have the resources to save them all, I know we cannot help every hurt, but we can still help. We may not be able to fix all the world’s problems, but we can, we must do something.  Every small faithful step we take builds for the kingdom of God and aids in the transformation of the world. Every time we give of our resources to help someone else, every time we give our time to help provide for another person, every time we stop to truly see and recognize the need of another person then we are joining in on the sacred work of God.  We are a blessing to those whom God has special care for.    

This morning’s scripture can be uncomfortable because it challenges us to pursue compassionate actions instead of personal comfort.  This scripture reminds us that the way of Jesus is to focus less on ourselves and more on others.  So may we have compassion and care for the people that God has special care for.   May we love what God loves and be saddened by what saddens God.   May we have generosity for the poor, compassion for the hungry, and weep with those who weep.  May we realize that being blessed is not about what we have but by how we can be a blessing to others.    
 

Scripture:  1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Songs have been written to cover just about every topic imaginable, but there is one subject that seems to be the most popular:  A crazy, little thing called love.   It is estimated that more than 100 million love songs have been recorded.  The variety of love songs is staggering as they appear in all genres.   The songs tell us that love is all we need and that we will do anything for love.  Yet most of these songs do not actually define love, they won’t do that.  There are some that give some definition.  Tina Turner cynically asked “what’s love got to do with it, and defined love as a secondhand emotion.   Other songs are a bit more positive and assure us that love will never give you up, never let you down, and never hurt you.  Singers of all varieties love to crone about love and hit the high notes when they proclaim, “I will always love you”, but they rarely actually say what love is.  

On the one hand, perhaps they do not need to.   Perhaps they do not need to define love, because on some level we know what love is.  Love is less something we explain and define and more something we feel on a deep level-which is why it is such a good topic for songs.  Yet on the other hand, how we use words matter and definitions are important.  Love is a kind of hard word to define in English, because of how the word is used.  English has more than 170,000 words.  It is one of the languages with the most words in active use in the world, yet we use the word love in a lot of different contexts.   We use the word love to define the attraction and connection between two people.  We use the world love to define how we relate to the divine, and we use the word love to describe how we feel about pizza.

 Because we do not ever define the word well, it does lose some of its meaning.  Grammy winning song writer Jimmy Webb points this out in his book Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting.   Where he wrote about love that the word is “overused and has no good rhymes.”  Despite the fact it is overused, especially in songs, I think Jackie DeShannon was right when she sang “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.  It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”  If that is true, then it is important to define just what this world needs.  It is important to answer the question, “What is love?”  And this morning’s scripture goes a long way in helping us do just that. 

There is a decent chance that you have heard this scripture before, because this is the go-to scripture for weddings.   It makes sense, and it kind of works.  After all, if a newlywed couple treated each other with love as it is described in this scripture then they would be off to a great start.   However, this morning’s scripture is not about weddings.   This morning’s scripture is part of the same general thought that started in 1 Corinthians 12 and continues into 1 Corinthians 14.  The past two weeks we explored 1 Corinthians 12, as a reminder and to get us all on the same page.   The church of Corinth had a question about spiritual gifts.  While we do not know the exact question, we can infer from Paul’s writings that it had something to do with some gifts being more important or special than others.   Specifically, we get the idea that there were some in the Corinthians church who seemed to believe that those who spoke in tongues or prophesied were somehow better than those who did not. 

Paul really tries to emphasize this is not the case.  He points out that all spiritual gifts come from the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s purposes, and he points out that the church is like a body where all fulfill their role, and all roles are needed and equally important.   From there he turns to this morning’s scripture, to teach the Corinthians the most excellent way.   The point that Paul makes is that the most amazing spiritual gifts are not worth much if our motivation is not in the right place.   The church of Corinth desired these charismatic, exciting outward manifestations of the holy spirit, but Paul is urging them to instead desire an inward change.  Their faith is not defined by the outward stuff they can do, but rather by a changed heart, a heart defined by love. 

 Thankfully, Paul then goes on to define love.  In just a couple of verses he does a much better job than most love songs at telling us what love is.  Paul describes love as an entity and gives it characteristics.  Love is not this independent thing, but rather it is an internal attitude that impacts and effects our thoughts and actions.  So by describing the characteristics of love, Paul is telling us how love should impact and influence our thoughts and actions.   Love should lead us to being patient and kind.  It is out of love that we should refrain from being envious, being blinded by pride, or act in anger towards others.  Love should motivate us to protect others, and love should be a source of strength in our life that keeps our hope from wavering and enables us to preserve, because we know love never fails.  

This kind of perfect love that Paul describes is the very love that God has for us.  God proved this love to us through Jesus.  On the night he gave himself up for us, Jesus met with his closest disciples in an upper room.   The gospel of John records he told them many things including Greater love has no one than this:  to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.”  One of the disciples who was in the room that night used this experience to give their own definition of love in the epistle that he wrote.  In 1 John 3:16 he wrote: “This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down his lie for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”  

Love is Jesus Christ crucified.  It is through the cross we see the perfect love of God displayed.  A love that does not keep record of wrongs but blots our sins, transgressions, and iniquities.  A love that is kind beyond measure, a love that is not self-seeking but fully selfless, a love that perseveres, and a love that never, ever fails.  This morning’s scripture defines love, and the mighty acts of Jesus Christ prove this love.  Love, as defined by this morning’s scripture is not just a poetic word.  It is not just a theoretical or ethereal concept.   Love is an attitude of the heart that inspires us to action. 

Jesus himself was clear about what kind of actions we should be motivated towards.   He said the greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.  He said the second command is like it to love your neighbor as yourself.  Jesus demonstrated this love.  He demonstrated his love for God by being obedient to God to death, even death on a cross.  He demonstrated his love for neighbors by laying down his life both for his friends and for the whole world.  The love that Jesus put into action, was the perfect love of God and one of the final points that Paul makes in this scripture, is that we too can love in this way. 

After Paul defines love so well in verses 4-7, the scripture does seem to take a bit of a turn.   Verses 10 and 11 state: “but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”  In this morning’s scripture Paul ties maturity to perfection and perfection to love. 

 This connection between maturity, perfection, and love was one that fascinated John Wesley, the found of the Methodist movement.  It was a connection that he saw repeated throughout the scripture.  In our United Methodist tradition, we believe that faith is not a static thing, but through the Holy Spirit working in our lives our faith grows and matures.  As our faith matures, it transforms and changes us to the point where we reach Christian perfection.  Christian perfection does not mean we are flawless.  There can still be missteps, bad connections and accidental fumbles.  Christian perfection is when we truly and fully love God with all of our being, we truly and fully love our neighbor as ourself, and we willfully do not sin.

Christian perfection is when we learn to love perfectly.  Christian perfection is when the definition of love that Paul gives in this morning’s scripture is also a description of who we are.  One of the things we still believe that we got from John Wesley is that Christian perfection is not a theoretical ideal.  This is not some sort of impossible standard that we will never reach, but that this is a reality we can live into.  About loving others, Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.”  Jesus would not have told us this if it were not possible.  So we believe that Christian perfection is a level of maturity we can reach.    Not only can we achieve it, but we should strive for it and make it our goal.   

This is the same the point that Paul made for the Corinthians in this morning’s scripture.   They were desiring flashy spiritual gifts, but Paul urged them to not strive for these gifts but to strive for love.   The Corinthians wanted outward manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but Paul urges them to desire an inward change.  This morning’s scripture urged the Corinthians and us to pursue a perfect love that will change us from the inside out, that will bring us to maturity, and that will lead us to fully love God and love neighbors just like Jesus did. 
            
Jesus gives us the perfect example of perfect love to follow.   He loved sacrificially, and we can do the same.  Jesus sacrificed his life for the whole world, but we can follow the example of Jesus without going to the same scale as Jesus.  Instead of the whole world, we can start with one person at a time.   Instead of giving our lives like Jesus did, we can offer up what we have.  We can sacrificially give of our resources, not just our excess, but we can share what we have to provide for those who do not have.  We can sacrificially give of our time to meet the needs in the world around us.  We can also sacrifice our assumptions, our comfort, our belief that our viewpoint is always the right one so that we better have empathy, we can better have compassion for, and we can want mercy for people who might be different than we are.  In following the example of Jesus and relying on the empowerment of the holy spirit we can become perfect in love.

This morning’s scripture lays out the most excellent way.  It succeeds where many love songs fall short, and it defines love.  May we desire that the Holy Spirit works in our life so that we may be perfected in love.   May we pursue Christian perfection, not as a theoretical goal but as, by the grace of God, an achievable transformation of our hearts and lives.  May truly and fully love God with all of our being.  May we truly and fully love our neighbors.   Friends, the Beatles really were right.  All the world needs is love, and may we be the ones to show it to them what love is.