Scripture:  Romans 5:1-11

I know there are some people who manage to read a book or more a week, and while I do not think that I will ever get to that level I do read quite a bit.   This will come as a surprise to no one, but my favorite genre of books to read is science fiction.  Famed Christian author C.S. Lewis, who is known for writing the Chronicles of Narnia, also wrote a trilogy of science fiction books often referred to as his space trilogy.  These books are less known than his other works, and lately I have been reading them for the first time.  Unfortunately, I am also learning that there is a reason why these books are not as well known, but I have also found the experience of reading them fascinating because these are science fiction from another era.  In these books a human from England visits Mars and Venus to find planets with atmospheres, water, and alien life.  Today we know that in their current states, both planets are unable to sustain life as we know it.  However, C.S. Lewis wrote these books in the 1930s, and at that time this was not a known thing.  In the nineteenth century it was thought that there was a good possibility that both planets could support and house life.   By Lewis’ time, it was believed the odds of Mars having life was not very likely, but speculation of Venus having life, and even being a swampy rainforest like world, persisted into the 1960s.  

Based on the data available at the time the scientific minds of the late 19th and early 20th century theorized that alien life on our closest planetary neighbors was possible, and those theories fueled the speculative science fiction of the first half of the 20th century.   As more data became available the understanding and theories changed, and this is exactly how it should work.   Our beliefs should be informed by data, evidence, and proof.   While the scientific method has given us a reliable framework to do that, the reality is that seeking data, evidence, and proof to inform our belief has always been a feature of the human experience.   This morning’s scripture points to that.   In this morning’s scripture, Paul points to proof that we can assurance that forgiveness and reconciliation with God is real.  His proof is the death of Jesus.   This morning’s scripture can challenge us to consider how we might be able to add to the proof that God’s love can and has changed everything. 

This is the third week that we are focusing on a scripture from Romans, and three selections have come from the same section of Romans.   As a reminder, the book of Romans is a methodical book.  Paul does not make his points quickly in Romans.  He takes his time unpacking them, constructing an effective argument and then building upon that argument for the next point he seeks to make.  The primary point that Paul is making in this section is that sin separates us from God.   The Jewish law found in the first five books of the bible, can inform us what is sinful, but the law does not have the power to save.  It is not our actions that are credited as righteousness, it is our faith.  Specifically, it is our faith in Jesus Christ, because it is Jesus who was the gift that reconciles us to God.   It is Jesus who undoes the power of sin that entered the world.  As Paul wrote in the scripture we read two weeks ago, “For just as through the disobedience of one-man [Adam] people were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus] many will be made righteous.”

 It is in this morning’s scripture that Paul offers his proof.   Reconciliation with God, the forgiveness of sins, it is not something that we earn.  It is a gift born out of God’s love, and God proves this love because while we were sinners Christ died for us.   Paul’s proof of God’s love is that God did not spare Jesus from suffering the ultimate punishment for sin.  We have to remember that Paul wrote this letter, only a couple of decades after the crucifixion.  The death of Jesus was not just a story at the time of Paul.  Witnesses to that event were still very much alive.  It was an event that could be verified by those who experienced it firsthand.   

 The death of Jesus of Nazareth was Paul’s proof positive for God’s love and for grace.   Today, the crucifixion of Jesus still offers compelling proof to the love of God.   First, that Jesus died at the hand of Roman officials, is not something that most historians dispute.   While the gospels and Paul’s epistles were written with an intent purpose of sharing the story of Jesus, they are still primary historical sources.  The bible is not the only ancient source to tell of Jesus.  A Jewish historian name Josephus wrote a work called Antiquities of the Jews at the end of the first century.  One section covered the decades before the writing of the work, and there Josephus wrote:  “About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man.  For he was one who performed surprising deed and was a teacher. . .He won over many Jews and many Greeks. . .And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross.”

While secular historians may not ascribe much theological importance to the death of Jesus, the historicity of the event is not in question.   The death of Jesus is not just a story, it is not a fairy tale or a legend.  It is an event that happened, and it was Paul’s proof because he believed that it was not an accident it was evidence of God’s great love.  

This points to the second way that the death of Jesus is proof of God’s love, and that is that generations of Christian tradition have found truth in Paul’s claim.    The belief that God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While were still sinners, Christ died for us, is a core and essential belief of Christianity.  The belief that through the death of God’s son people were reconciled to God and we have saved through the resurrected life of Jesus are the beliefs which make Christianity unique.   This is core to what we believe, and it has been consistently so.  For instance, our United Methodist Book of Discipline contains our essential beliefs in the articles of religion.  Article VII from the Evangelical United Brethen tradition states: “We believe God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.  The offering Christ freely made on the cross is the perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, redeeming man from all sin, so that no other satisfaction is required.”  

 There are a lot of different branches and understandings of how to best follow Jesus, but while the words we use and the aspects we emphasize might be different, nearly 2,000 years of belief, across different cultures upholds that Jesus’s death on the cross is the proof of God’s love, and it is through Jesus that people have been reconciled to God and redeemed from all sin.   Despite all that tradition, upholding Paul’s proof there are still a lot of people that have a hard time believing it.  The reason why many struggle with Jesus’ sacrifice proving God’s love makes me think of the movie Saving Private Ryan.   In this movie a group of soldiers risk their lives to save one other solider, whose brothers have all died.   One of the questions asked throughout the movie is what makes Private Ryan worth the risk and sacrifice of all the others.  At the end, Private Ryan is saved but at a great cost.  As the captain, played by Tom Hank is dying from a German bullet, he grabs Private Ryan and whispers in his ear, “earn this.”  

Do you know how much more comfortable it would be if Jesus said this to us?   We are really good at earning things.   We are really good at having a sense of responsibility and paying back our debts.    Earning something is very comfortable for us, we do a lot better with the idea of earning something than being given something.  The infuriating beauty of this morning’s scripture, of the gospel, is precisely that we cannot earn it.    Christ died while we were still powerless and he died for the ungodly.  
 
We cannot earn God’s love and salvation, but surely, we must respond to it.  Out of great love God sacrificed his son.  Through Jesus we are once again connected to God.  The wrongdoing, the sin, the evil that we are guilty of no longer separates us from our creator, because Jesus’ death satisfies the penalty we have earned, and Jesus’ resurrected life frees us from death, wins the victory, and provides reconciliation with God.  If we truly claim that kind of love in our life, then it must be life changing, we must respond and change in some way.   We cannot pay God back and earn it, so how do we respond?   Through Jesus we have been forgiven and God’s love has been proven, so perhaps the way that we can best respond is to forgive and in doing so we add proof to God’s redeeming love. 

An example of what it means to do this comes from Corrie ten Boom.  During World War II in Holland, out of Christian conviction, she and her family helped Jews escape the Holocaust.  They were caught and imprisoned for it.  After the war she became a great social worker, author, and a well-known preacher.   In a Guidepost magazine article entitles “I’m still Learning to Forgive” she told a story of living into grace.   The year was 1947 and West Germany was still under Allied occupation.   Corrie ten Boom had come from Holland to try and help the country heal by preaching a message of reconciliation.  In a church in Munich, she preached that God forgives, and when sins are confessed before God it is like they are cast into a deep ocean, gone forever.   After the service a balding, heavyset man in a gray coat approached her.  Fear began to rise in her, because she recognized this man. He had been a guard at Ravensbruck, the concentration camp she had been interred at, the place where her sister died.  The man told her it was a good message, and he added that she was right, he had been a guard at Ravensbruck.  However, he had since become a Christian.  He had asked God to forgive the evil that he had done, and to change his heart.   But then, as he offered his hand he asked her, “Will you forgive me?”

In the article she wrote:   “And I stood there-I whose sins had again and again to be forgiven-and could not forgive.-  Betsie, my sister had died in that place-could he erase her slow terrible death simply by asking?  It was the most difficult thing I ever had to do but I had to do it- I knew that.  And still I stood there with coldness clutching my heart.  “Jesus help me” I prayed silently “I can lift my hand.  I can do that much.  You supply the feeling.”

“And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me.  And as I did, an incredible thing took place.  The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, spring into our joined hands.  And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.  “I forgive you brother” I cried “with my whole heart.”  For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner.  I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.”

When we were powerless, unable to save ourselves, while we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died for us.  This proves God’s love, and in the name of Jesus Christ we are forgiven!   One of the ways that we can prove God’s love in this world is that we can forgive others as well.  This does not mean we have to forget, we can still maintain healthy boundaries, but it means we let go of the hate, the anger, and the wrath that has built in our hearts.   It means that, just like God did for us, we choose love for someone who has wronged us.  

One of the main points Paul makes in the book of Romans is that through Jesus Christ we are reconciled to God our creator, and that this is because of God’s great love.   The death of Jesus is the proof of this love; it is the evidence that we can be forgiven.   May you believe and know that God loves you so much that while you were powerless and still a sinner, Christ died for you.   As God did for us, may we be willing to take steps to offer forgiveness to others, not because they earned it but because our hearts are changed by grace and our lives can be proof positive that God’s love can transform everything.   
 
 

Scripture:  Romans 4:1-5; 13-17

For almost a hundred years it was the conventional wisdom and belief that it was not possible for the human body to run a mile in less than four minutes.  We really did not keep track of things like world records until the 1800s. The first person to be recognized as holding the world record for the fastest mile was Charles Westhall in 1855 with a time of 4:28. The fastest runners in the world kept getting the time lower and setting new records, but they could not get a time below four minutes.   In 1945 a Swedish runner seemed to confirm the impossibility of a four-minute mile by setting a new record with a time of 4:01.4.   In the world of sports, it became a given that a four-minute mile truly was impossible.  A four-minute mile was just impossible. . . until it wasn’t.  In 1954 Roger Banister of England broke the barrier and ran a mile in 3:59.4.   He had done the impossible.   Banister’s impossible feat stood in the record books for only forty six days, at which point Australian John Landy turned in a mile of 3:58.  Since Banister first ran a mile in under four minutes, the world record has been broken eighteen times, and currently the record for the fastest mile is 3:43.13, well below what experts once thought was physically impossible. 

The four-minute mile is often held up as an example of how what we think can hold us back.   Before Roger Banister some of the top runners who trained relentlessly and would run in the best conditions could not get their time under four minutes.  Banister was not a professional athlete.  He only trained part-time while pursuing a degree.   He also ran his record mile in less-than-ideal conditions.   It is often lifted up that the primary difference between Banister and the other top athletes of his day, is that Banister did not believe a four-minute mile was impossible.   Once he proved it was possible, within a few years at the highest-level track events it became standard for the winning time to be under four minutes.   It is often theorized that what kept runners from breaking the four-minute mile was not a matter physicality, it was a matter of belief.  They simply could not achieve what they believed to be impossible.    

 The story of Richard Bannister shows us that when we assume something is true, that belief can have influence over actions. Banister challenged the assumption of the less than four-minute mile, and once we showed it could be done that became the standard.   A similar dynamic is at work in this morning’s scripture.  The Apostle Paul challenges long held conventional wisdom about people’s relationship with God, and in doing so set a new standard for grace.  The new standard that Paul puts forth can continue to challenge conventional wisdom today. 

Last week we also looked at a scripture from Romans, so as a reminder in the book of Romans Paul is addressing the church in Rome that is made up of both Jewish believers and gentile, or non-Jewish, believers.   The primary point that Paul is trying to make in Romans is that despite their different cultural backgrounds all of the believers in the Roman church have the same need for grace through Jesus Christ.   Paul makes this case with a systematic approach that uses the philosophical wisdom and logic of his day.  This morning’s scripture is specifically addressed to the Jewish part of the congregation.  

We know this because Paul focuses on Abraham.  For the non-Jewish believers Abraham would not have had much relevance, but he was incredibly important to the Jewish believers.  We can read all about Abraham in the book of Genesis, and he is significant because it is with Abraham that God makes a covenant.  It is the covenant between God and Abraham that the Israelites traced back to make them God’s People.  Because of the covenant God was the God of Abraham, and as his descendants the God of Abraham was the God of the Israelites.  It was because of the covenant with Abraham that God gave the Israelites the law.  The conventional wisdom of the time at least in Jewish circles, was that they were the inheritors of the covenant.  One of the prevailing thoughts was that because of Abraham, because of the law they had a step up over others in being righteous, in right relationship with God. 

The whole point of this morning’s scripture is Paul pushing back against that, because if it is the covenant made that made him righteous and if it is following the law that saves, then it makes reconciliation with God, salvation, something that is earned.   This is the point Paul makes in verses 4 and 5.  If righteousness is earned, then it is like paying someone what they are owed, but our relationship with God is not something earned by our own merit.  As Paul writes in verse 5: “to the one who does not work but trust God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.”   Paul also states in verse 16 “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all.” 
 
Because Paul was so meticulous in the book of Romans he builds this viewpoint out in detail, and this morning’s scripture is just a portion of the overall section where he makes this point.   In the letter to the Ephesians Paul makes the same point as he does in this morning’s scripture a lot more succinctly.  In Ephesians 2:8-9 Paul wrote, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works so that one can boast.” 

The conventional wisdom of Paul’s time is that it was through Abraham’s actions and making the covenant that he could be considered righteous, and it was the conventional wisdom that following the descendants of Abraham by living into that covenant and following the law would be saved, but in this morning’s scripture Paul challenges this conventional wisdom by pointing to grace not works.  Just like a sub-four-minute mile was impossible until it was not, this view of grace accepted through faith, rewrote the rules.  During the time of Paul this would have been considered radical, it would have been a case of scandalous grace.  Today, the understanding that we are saved by grace through faith and not through what we do or through the covenant that an ancestor made with God, is standard.    Yet, as this scripture points out it was not always the case.   Grace through Jesus Christ rewrote the rules, it made the impossible, possible.   Grace challenged conventional wisdom of Paul’s day, and I have to wonder in what ways does grace challenge some of the conventional wisdom today.   Just like it was in Paul’s day, there are still ways that grace might be a little scandalous.  

In this morning’s scripture, Paul points out that we are saved by grace through faith not works, and as followers of Jesus who seek to model our lives on grace I think there is a piece of conventional wisdom that grace can really challenge.   The conventional wisdom today is that “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”  The origins of this phrase can be traced back to the nineteenth century.  At this time, it was common for saloons to offer a “free lunch” to someone if they purchased a beer.  The food served was often not terribly filling and it had a high salt content, all of which encouraged the patrons to buy more beer.  As an opinion piece from a 1873 Newspaper quipped, “One of the most expensive things in the city- a free lunch.”   The phrase, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” began as a warning to people to be on the lookout for marketing gimmicks, but even though bars stopped the practice of a free lunch long ago the phrase has hung around. The phrase gained popularity in the 1970s when it was the title of a bestselling book by economist Edwin Dolan.  Today the phrase is often used in economic context to convey the idea that everything has a cost of some sort.
 
  While that is technically true and thinking of hidden or unintended costs can be helpful or prudent, the idea of “no such thing as a free lunch” is often used cynically today.  It is most often used as a criticism of social programs that benefit groups of people more in need of help.  The phrase is often used to justify an argument that I should keep what is mine instead of it being used for the betterment of others or society. The wisdom of today is that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and people are incredibly concerned with others taking advantage of the system and getting something for nothing.   There is a lot of hand wringing today because a lot of people are concerned that someone else is going to get a free lunch at their expense.   But that is not a grace-filled way to approach life, because grace is never earned, it is a free gift without expectation.  
 
 Grace absolutely had a cost.   This morning when we celebrate the sacrament of communion, we remember the cost.  The body of Christ broken for us, the blood of Christ poured out for the forgiveness of sins.   The motivation of Jesus was not “what do I get out of this?”  The motivation was love, and that love for each of us is so strong, that even if you were the only person Jesus could save by his sacrifice, it is still a cost that would be paid without hesitation.   
 
The conventional wisdom of “there’s no so thing as a free lunch” is motivated by a point that put’s self-first, it is a viewpoint that is about keeping what is mine.  Grace is the exact opposite.  It is motivated by being other focused.  It’s motivated by selfless love.   In Paul’s day grace challenged the conventional wisdom by pointing out that grace may be guaranteed to all and today grace challenges us to be focused on others with selfless generosity. 
 
Over the past few years, a number of churches have found ways to put grace into practice.   One of the greatest worries that Americans have is related to expenses from a medical emergency.  Medical debt is an American problem, with one quarter of households reporting they have difficulty paying for medical expenses in the past.   Churches have found ways to address this issue in a way that leads with grace.  A few years ago the mega-church Northview Christian in Carmel, IN paid off $7.8 million in medical debt for almost 6,000 families.  
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The Carmel church did not raise almost $8 million to do this, what they did was buy unpaid debt from medical institutions.  They were able to buy the debt at pennies to the dollar, and then instead of trying to collect the church forgave the debt.   Dozens of other churches in Indiana have also done this as well as hundreds around the country.   They are not all mega-churches with vast budgets.  A Couple of years ago Acton United Methodist Church outside of Indianapolis which has an average attendance of a little over 100 raise around $20,000 to pay off $2 million of medical debt.  
 
The churches do not end up knowing the families they helped, but these families were relived the burden of massive debt because of the kindness of followers of Jesus.  Yes, there is a cost to this kindness, but that should not be a hinderance.  This morning’s scripture helps point out that what makes grace be grace is that it is fa free gift to the receiver, it is never earned or deserved.  But if on the cross Jesus paid it all for us, then grace challenges us today to consider how we might selflessly give out of love to help others.   There are many ways to do this, and paying off medical debt is one way that some churches have found that they can put grace into practice today. 
 
In this morning’s scripture Paul challenges the conventional wisdom of the day by point to grace.   Grace was scandalous then and grace is still scandalous today, because to take grace seriously means we have to admit that we cannot save ourselves and that we are in need of the gift of God’s forgiving love.    Grace is also scandalous because if we are going to live as followers of Jesus, then we must also lead with grace like Jesus does.  This means that focus is on others and motivation is selfless love. So may we lead with grace, because it is grace that saves us.  May we lead with grace because it is due to grace that faith is credited as righteousness.  May we lead with grace, because that is what this world needs now more than ever.  

Scripture: Romans 5:12-19

It used to be called consumption.  This is because for a lot of the infected people who were symptomatic the disease would slowly progress, consuming more and more of the person’s health and vitality until it eventually killed them.  In the 1800’s, as industrialization led to more people being  packed tightly together, the threat of consumption spread.  At its height it was responsible for a quarter of all deaths in Europe.   Special facilities called sanatoriums were built specifically to treat and house afflicted patients.  In the United States more than 1,000 of these facilities were built.  We no longer call disease consumption today, because today tuberculosis is curable.  A vaccine was created in 1906 and in 1946 antibiotics offered an effective cure.  

Despite there being a vaccine for more than a century and a cure for eighty years, tuberculosis has never been eradicated.  Worldwide, the disease continues to be an ongoing issue.  In fact, it was estimated in 2024 that there were around 10.7 million new infections, and annually tuberculosis kills more than 1.2 million people, making it the leading cause of death from an infectious disease.  It is a tragedy and an absolute failure of our global systems that a curable disease still causes so much suffering.   The world has the technology and the collective resources to get the deaths caused by tuberculosis as close to zero as possible, but so far global leaders have not made the choice to do so.  

 It is unfortunate that a disease with an established cure still causes so much harm in the world today.   Yet, for much longer the same has been true about the spiritual lives of people.   As this morning’s scripture points out, sin is a spiritual affliction with a 100% infection rate.   It is a spiritual affliction that causes untold suffering and real harm in the world.   This morning’s scripture also points out that God has provided a cure.  Jesus Christ is the remedy for that which ails us.  

 The book of Romans can sometimes be a hard book to approach, because it tends to be one the denser books in the bible.  In Romans Paul seeks to bridge the divide between Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome’s Christian community, and he seek to do so through doctrine and theology.   As such, Romans is a methodical book constructed with philosophical logic.  Each layer builds upon and then expands the layer just laid down.   This structure can make it difficult to consider in part, because whatever scripture we read from Romans it is likely deeply connected to the surrounding section and cannot be easily pulled out.   We find that dynamic in this morning’s scripture.  

 It is in this morning’s scripture we find the conclusion to one of Paul’s points and the introduction to what will be the major focus for the next several chapters.   Paul was trying to bridge the gap between two different cultures, so one of the beginning arguments in Romans is the importance of the Jewish law.   Paul makes the point that the law, found in the first five books of the bible, is helpful and necessary because it defines what is right and wrong.  It gives a clear direction to what righteousness looks like.  While this would have been old news to the Jewish believers, Paul made a meticulous case for the importance of the law for the gentile believers as well.  However, he points out there is a problem.   The law does not save.  As Paul wrote in Romans chapter 3, “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”   The law of God found in our Old Testament, is helpful for knowing what is right and wrong but it is powerless to save us from the power of sin when we fall short.

 I have had the privilege to teach confirmation classes a number of times over the years.  In teaching young people, the basic beliefs of Christianity and the unique aspects of our United Methodist heritage, we will talk about sin.  I will ask them for an example of a sin, and every single time I have taught confirmation the very first answer given is murder.  It makes sense, because it is something we all know to be wrong-and it is something that we likely believe we will never do.   When it comes to sin, we try to make short cuts by creating list of sinful behaviors, and often the least tempted we are to do one of the behaviors the more likely we are to hold it up as a clear example of sin.  

Sin is more than just a list of behaviors though.  There are many ways to define sin.  Perhaps the shortest is that sin is willfully doing what we know is wrong.   A more complete definition of sin would be that sin is any thought or action that fall short of God’s will.   The greatest consequence of sin is that our sinful actions separate us from God.  So, any actions that move us further away from God is sin.   This is why this morning’s scripture begins by focusing on Adam.  The creation story found in Genesis tell us of Adam and his partner Eve.   We can read in Genesis chapter 3 how they chose to take a step away form God, and how that act of rebellion put sin into the world, polluting the relationship of people with God. 

Sin, fracturing the relationship with God, has created the spiritual reality we find ourselves in.  It is not that people are born naturally sinful, but we live in a world, corrupted by sin, and because of that we cannot escape the corruption ourselves. Theologian Randy Maddox, who sought to define John Wesley’s practical theology in his book Responsible Grace, calls this state inbeing sin.  Being separated from God distorts our nature and inclines us to sinful actions that move us further from God  Like a virus, we are all inevitably infected by sin.   In trying to summarize John Wesley’s viewpoint on this Maddox wrote, “From this spiritual corruption, spring our actual sins, which affect all . . .relationships definitive of human life.  We no longer consistently love and serve other humans; . . .our own happiness and self-acceptance drain away.” 

This is spiritual state, infected by sin, that we find our world in.   It should not take a lot of convincing to the truth of this.  We can see the evidence all around us.   We can the systemic abuses that enrich the selfish.   We see the suffering that pride and greed create.   We see oppressive systems that target vulnerable and marginalized communities, and it seems that cruelty is the point that motivates far, far too many.   This is not the way that it should be.  This is not the way that God created the world to work.   This is the result of rebelling against God, it is a result of countless individual, selfish choices that have moved people further and further from God.  Sin might have entered the world through one man, as this morning’s scripture states, but at this point we are all guilty.  We have all chosen ourselves over our neighbor, we have our stepped further from God through our actions.   There is no difference between us and Adam and Eve, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 

 If sinful behaviors are the result of separation from God, and sin is the cause for that separation, then Jesus is the remedy.  This is the main point that this morning’s scripture seeks to make.  The gift of Jesus, the grace poured out through him overflows and covers the sins of all.   So that all who accept him as Lord and Savior are reconciled with God, have a blessed assurance that their sins-even theirs- are forgiven.   It is Jesus who reconciles us, it is Jesus who brought about forgiveness, and it is Jesus who defeated sin and offers us the ability to be righteous, in right relationship with God our creator.   

 In Romans Paul uses doctrinal arguments to convince the Jews and Gentiles that regardless of their cultural backgrounds, they are all in need of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.   Scriptures like this morning’s have led to our doctrinal beliefs about the nature of sin and our continued need for Jesus today.   This morning, in this place we all fall into one of two groups.   For the first group, perhaps the idea of our separation from God, the infection of sin, and the need for a savior is new to you.   Perhaps it is not new, but it is only been an abstraction, it has been a theory on paper, and not your lived in experience. Perhaps, God feels distant to you and has always felt distant.  If that is you, then the truth of this morning’s scripture is that God will continue to seem distant without Jesus.   We can not know and fully experience the immense love of God that justifies us and then sanctifies us without Jesus in our lives.   Without Christ all of us are separated from the full love of God, and it is only through following Christ that we can experience the forgiveness of sins.  If you have never in your life truly committed to following Jesus and believing that he is the savior of the world, then it is my most sincere prayer that you would hear this morning’s scripture.  That you come to believe that Jesus is the remedy.  If you are in that group, and you want to take a step in faith then there is nothing in the world I would like more today than to have that conversation with you.  

 For the second group, this morning has mostly been review.  It has been review because you have made committed your life to following Jesus, you already consider him as your Lord and Savior.  You have already experienced the blessed assurance that comes from knowing that your sins are forgiven and covered by the amazing grace of Christ our Lord.   If you are in that group, then I hope this morning has helped provide clarity to what you already know or helped give you the ability to put what you believe into words.  If you are in this group, then I think the question before us is, what do we do with this morning’s scripture?  How do we let it impact and shape our lives today?  

In this morning’s scripture Paul makes the case that sin has separated us from God, but through the obedience of Jesus and the gift of grace offered though him forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with our creator, and a new life, a righteous life, is possible.   Perhaps the way that we let this scripture impact our lives is that we let our actions reflect the grace of Christ.   Because the world we live in, it is still infected with sin, it is still broken and fallen.   If grace and forgiveness through Christ is the remedy to this affliction, then we can be agents of grace and forgiveness.  Because when we model grace we ultimately point back to Christ.     

 A good example of what it means to model grace is what happened in Pennsylvania in 2006.   For reasons only known to him, Charles Roberts  burst into an Amish school house where he eventually killed five girls before shooting himself.   This was a senseless, inexplicable act of violence and the Amish community responded in the exact opposite way, with an inexplicable act of grace and forgiveness.    The family of Charles Roberts, who had no idea this was coming, were horrified and confused.  Mere hours after shooting, the family found members of the Amish community-including parents of the murdered children- at their doorstep.  They were not there for vengeance; they were there to comfort, to love, and to offer forgiveness.  In that dark hour the family of Charles Robert found the very people he had wronged the ones who were there to meet their needs.    The Amish community even set up a charitable fund to help the family of the shooter.   In the face of unspeakable evil, the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania modeled forgiving grace.  

 We can all choose grace.  We can all choose to forgive, and when we do we show what it looks like for sinners like us to be made righteous through Jesus the son.    The world is sick with sin, and while we cannot cure it, we do need to.  Jesus is the cure.  The good news of this morning’s scripture is that he has already won the victory.   So may we show the world what grace looks like lived out.  May we be living examples that state there is a solution to many of the problems and suffering in this world.  May how we live point to the beautiful truth that Jesus is the remedy.   May we show just how amazing grace is.  

Scripture:  Matthew 17:1-9

While I have never been, I understand that Iceland has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.  With black sand beaches, grand glaciers, and waterfall laden highlands there is a lot to see.   For this reason, there are all kinds of travel companies that will offer excursions, outings, and bus tours of the best sites to see.   In 2012 though one of these tour groups experienced a scare.  The tour bus had stopped in a wilderness area in Southern Iceland to allow the tourists to see the country’s natural beauty.  As people returned to the bus and it was getting set to leave, some of the passengers reported that a woman was missing.  The tour organizer called the local authorities to report the missing person.   Law enforcement officers were dispatched.  A search and rescue helicopter was readied, but deployment was delayed due to weather.  The local police led volunteers of tourists in search parties and fanned out to look for the missing woman.  After several hours the search was quietly called off when it was realized that the missing woman was part of the search party looking for herself. 

If you look up articles on this event, most of them will poke light fun at the woman for failing to realize it was about herself, but the description of the missing woman was incredibly vague and could fit literally any bilingual Asian woman.  If there is any fault to be assigned for this mishap it would be the American tourists who reported her missing.  At the stop the woman had changed clothes, and when she boarded the bus, she sat in a different seat.  The American tourists who reported the woman missing, were unable to recognize her because she changed clothes, and then a headcount error caused the situation to spiral into an hours long search for a woman who was not even missing.  

 People spent hours searching for a person who was right there with there in front of them.  It is a funny story, but it echoes what can be a common faith experience.  Over the years people have sought Jesus, but they often miss him when he is right in front of them.   Throughout Church history, Christians have struggled with understanding who Jesus is.   He is a historical person who we can read about, but Jesus is also the Word of God through which all things have been made. Jesus is the son of God born into the world like anyone else, yet Jesus is also fully God-united with the Father and the Spirit in perfect Trinity.

 Throughout the years biblical scholars, theologians, and individual believers  have sought to find the real Jesus.  Like the woman from the Iceland tour group, what happens is people end up missing Jesus is in their midst, because instead they are looking for a form they are comfortable with.  One of the things we should be cautious of in our faith is that we craft a savior who fits our wants instead of seeking to know Jesus for who Jesus is.  This morning’s scripture can help us guard against that pitfall, because in this morning’s scripture we get a glimpse of Jesus as he truly is, the glorified son of God. 

 This morning’s scripture captures an event commonly referred to as the transfiguration because Jesus is transformed before the disciples and it is a story that appears in three of the four gospels.    While it is not named, biblical scholars often identified the mountain this took place on as Mount Hermon.  This is the highest mountain in the region of Galilee, and the top is often capped with snow.  This is a fairly isolated placed, and Jesus did not bring all his disciples but only his three closest: Peter, James, and John.  It is in this isolated place with the people he trusts the most that the glory of Jesus 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. In this, Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of the covenant.   It 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.   It is on the mountain while transfigured that Jesus confirms and reveals what Peter had declared in the passage before this morning’s scripture: Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the living God.   

 Despite this morning’s scripture giving us a glimpse of who Jesus truly is, there are still common viewpoints that seek to see Jesus as something else.   While there are numerous examples of people looking for the real Jesus and not finding him because they are looking for something else, there are a couple of these viewpoints that are more common.   For a couple of hundred years one of the more common ones that comes up time and time again is the quest for the historical Jesus.  The historical Jesus is a vain scholarly quest to isolate Jesus as a first century Jewish man.   The notion of the historical Jesus is one that seeks to define Jesus only by his historical and cultural context.   In essence the historical Jesus uses all the tools that scholars have to completely define the humanity of Jesus. 

One of the earliest and most famous examples of this is the book The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth but it is more commonly called the Jefferson Bible.  U.S. President Thomas Jefferson was not comfortable with the supernatural aspects found in the gospels.   So, he made his own version.  He synergized the gospels into one narrative and cut out the more supernatural aspects that he disagreed with.  He literally did this; he took scissors to his bible and cobbled together his version of the story of Jesus.  Unsurpisingly, this morning’s scripture did not make the cut. 

The third president of the United States was not the only one to do this.  Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s a group of biblical scholars gained some prominence and essentially attempted to do the same thing.  Calling themselves the Jesus Seminar, this group of scholars also sought to create their own version of the gospels that they believed contained the scriptures that represented only the historical Jesus.  Again, it is not surprising that this morning’s scripture did not make the cut.  Even to this day every couple of years a new book or TV special will come out seeking to define the historical Jesus.  For people who take this perspective the historical Jesus was a man who greatly changed the course of history but little else.  

 It does have to be acknowledged that Jesus was a man who lived in first century Israel under Roman rule.   The context of the land, the political climate, and the culture of the time are significant aspects to study to more fully understanding the gospels.  The fatal flaw with the quest for the historical Jesus is that it emphasizes the humanity of Jesus but completely loses the divinity of Jesus.   It is Jesus without the Christ.   Jesus was a man who occupied a certain place in history, but Jesus is also much more than that.  The historical Jesus is a form of Jesus, but it is not the full picture.  A strictly historical Jesus is not the real Jesus. 

The historical Jesus is a version of Jesus mostly encountered in academic or non-church settings, but there is another incomplete representation of Jesus that is common today.  This form of Jesus is humorously brought to light by Will Farrell when he plays NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby in the movie Talladega Nights.  Towards the beginning of this movie there is a scene where Ricky Bobby leads a prayer with his family, and he stars it by saying, “Dear Tiny infant Jesus.”  Throughout his prayer he elaborates on this, “Dear Tiny Jesus, with your golden fleece diapers” and he ask for a blessing of “baby Jesus powers”.   In the scene his wife interrupts his prayer to point out Jesus did not stay a baby but grew up.   To this Ricky Bobby responds, “I like Christmas Jesus the best.”

While very few people address prayers to “tiny infant Jesus”, there are a lot of people based on how they express their faith like Christmas Jesus the best.  A Christmas Jesus is an adorable version of Jesus that does not challenge us.  A Christmas Jesus is a version of Jesus that is one that is all about giving us stuff to make us happy.   It is a savior that exist solely for our personal pleasure.   This version of Jesus ignores the teachings of Jesus that might make us uncomfortable like loving the least of these, forgiving our enemies, or going and sinning no more.  Christmas Jesus is a heretical view of the Christ that keeps the supernatural power of Jesus but removes everything else. 

These are just a couple of ways that people have sought to find Jesus but missed the real Jesus in front of them.   In this morning’s scripture the three disciples got to see Jesus is in his truest, transfigured form.   However, they also received some instruction on how to ensure they did not lose sight of the real Jesus.   In verse five of this morning’s scripture from a bright cloud the disciples heard the voice of God the Father tell them “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!”  

We are best equipped to find Jesus when we listen to him, because Jesus tells us who he is.   In the gospels he states that he is the bread of life, that he is the living water, that he is the light of the world.   Jesus says he is the good the shepherd, the is the resurrection and the life.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.   When we look beyond the gospels we find descriptions of Jesus that capture as he appeared in all his glory in this morning’s scripture.  He is the prince of peace.   He is the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings.   He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.  He is the Christ, the Messiah, and the son of the one true God.   He is the author and perfecter of our faith.  He is the head of the one true church.   He is the lamb of God, the canceler of sins, and the one who paid our debt.   He is the savior who was and is and is yet to come.   He sits at the right hand of the Father in all honor, glory, and power forever and ever.

The gospels and all the bible tells us who Jesus, the real Jesus is.   If we want to be sure we are following the real Jesus, then, again, the way we do that is to listen to him.   We do what Jesus told us to do.   We love our neighbors as ourselves, we seek first the kingdom of God, we stand up to oppressive power, we reach out to those who have been pushed to the margins, we grant grace and mercy, we forgive, we put others first, and we sacrificially give to meet the needs of the least of these.   We follow Jesus not just on paper, not just in theory, but in daily lives-lived out through our actions.   When we do this then there is no doubt we will find and know the real Jesus, because we will be following in his footsteps.  

  Years ago, a pastor was traveling India and visited the Missionaries of Charity headquarters in Calcutta.  It just so happened that the timing was right and he got to meet the legendary Mother Teresa in person.  This was early in the man’s career, so he asked her “what advice might you have to offer a young preacher?”  She replied, “Preach Jesus, the true Jesus, the real Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, and not the Jesus of people’s imagination.”   May we seek to be followers of Jesus, the real Jesus, the resurrected Jesus.   May we align our hearts not with a version of Jesus that makes a comfortable, but with the son of God, with whom the father is well pleased.   May we listen to him.   May we serve others the way that he served, and may we love others the way that he loves us.   Just like Jesus was transfigured into his full glory in this morning’s scripture, may following Christ transform us so that we can be a shining beacon that shares Jesus, the real Jesus, with our world.  

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:1-12

Science fiction writers love the concept of a paradox.  A paradox is when two things that should not exist or happen simultaneously do so.  A paradox is something that by its very nature is contradictory.   Exploring paradoxes is the basis for all kinds of works of science fiction, but paradoxes have an oddly specific use in science fiction.  It is one that gets used time and time again and gets used so frequently that it has a dedicated page on the website tvtropes.org that track when it is used.  The TV trope is called the logic bomb, and this is when a contradiction in logic or a paradox is used to confuse a computer or an A.I.  

 One of the earliest and clearest examples of this trope can be seen in Star Trek.  In the original series episode, The Ultimate Computer.  In this episode an advanced computer with artificial intelligence is installed on the Enterprise.   However, things go off the rails when the computer determines to fulfill its program to make safe travel spacer it must keep complete control of the ship.  When a poor crew member wearing a red shirt tries to unplug the computer, the computer kills the person due to its self-preservation programming.  Captain Kirk eventually saves the day by pointing out that killing the crew member violated the computer’s ethics programming so that by carrying out its programming it was violating it’s programming.  This paradox causes the computer to short circuit and shut down.  The original series of Star Trek especially loves this trope, because it was used multiple times.  Over the course of only three seasons, Captain Kirk talks a computer to death four times. 

 Paradoxes are not just a trope that sci-fi writers rely on.  In science there are a variety of observed paradoxes.  Often these scientific paradoxes are questions that do not yet have answers.   Often seeking answers to these questions lead to new discoveries.   Our faith also has paradoxes, but like this morning’s scripture, we often use the word mystery.  These mysteries of faith often are questions without answers, and one of the paradoxes of faith is embracing the mystery often lead not to more doubt but to deeper faith.  

This morning’s scripture is a continuation of the scriptures we have read for the past two weeks.  To briefly recap, 1 Corinthians was written to a church that Paul helped found and one that he spent a year and a half at.  Because this faith community was among the first in the world to navigate what it means to be a Christian church, there were some hiccups, there was some conflict, and division.   Paul largely wrote the letter to address these sources of conflict, but one of the points Paul makes in the beginning of the letter is that the step of faith they have made to follow Christ sets them apart from the world around them.   The faith they now cling to is the wisdom of God, even though the world will see their new viewpoint as foolishness.   This is the part of the point that is being made in this morning’s scripture reading.  

Corinth was a Greek city, and as such was a hub of Greek culture.   This was a traditional culture that valued the philosophy, logic, and wisdom of the Greek philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato.   It was a culture that highly valued skill in rhetoric.   In this morning’s scripture Paul points out that he did not come to the Corinthians as a strong speaker with an incredibly delivered speech to sway them.   He also did not come with a robust presentation based on logic and philosophical wisdom.   Instead, he brought them a simple message:  Jesus Christ-crucified.  He brought this simple message in an straightforward for a specific purpose.  As Paul wrote in verse 5 “so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power.”  The paradox the Corinthians quickly experiences is that such a simple message is profoundly life changing.  

Paul points this out.  Even though the message was simple, and even though it was not in line with the philosophical wisdom of the age, it is a message of Godly wisdom.  Paul specifically points out that this wisdom is a mystery, that even though God had planned for from the beginning, had only now been revealed.  This mystery that the rulers of the age could not understand was that of a crucified messiah.  The idea that through condemnation of one, salvation was won for all; that only through death, did eternal life become possible; through undergoing the ultimate humiliation of death on a cross, Jesus has been exalted to the ultimate glory and sits at the right hand of the Father.       

  This life-changing wisdom of a crucified savior is one that continued to be viewed as foolishness hundreds of years after Paul.  In fact, one of the first major heresies that threatened to tear the church apart in the first couple of hundred years was Docetism.  This heresy rose because the mystery of the crucified messiah was still a step too far.  They believed Jesus was the savior, but they did not like the idea of Jesus suffering on the cross.   The thought process was that if Jesus was truly perfect then physical pain would corrupt that perfection.  Thus, the Docetists believed that Jesus did not have a physical body.  He existed perfectly in the spiritual realm, and he only appeared to suffer on the cross, the crucifixion was essentially a magical illusion so that the perfection of the messiah would not be corrupted.  In the first couple of hundred years the Christian community rallied around declaring this belief false.  However, the fact that even 200 years after Paul wrote this morning’s scripture, the idea of a crucified messiah still tripping people up shows just how revolutionary and against the wisdom of the age the wisdom of God was.  

In this morning’s scripture Paul writes about the mysteries of faith, and he points out that mystery is an inevitable part of faith.  Paul wrote, “In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”  We are finite beings seeking to live in relationship with the infinite creator of the universe.  So, of course there are going to be paradoxes, there are going to be questions without answers, there is to going to be mystery.  It does not seem we are always a big fan of that though.   I remember 23 years ago when I started in youth ministry, In the youth minister’s office I inherited there was a meager collection of books and resources.  One of them was a book of answers.  It put worth that had it had the biblical answer for everything.  It had a wide range of topics and for each of these topics it would list scripture that supposably addressed this topic.  A lot of this involved proof-texting, taking a single verse of scripture out of context, and jamming it into a completely different context. The bible after all, does not have a single scripture about television or video games for example.  

I did not use that book much in youth ministry, but the idea that the bible is a book of answer, or an instruction manual of sorts is one that I continue to encounter from time to time.   This is a popular notion, because we like the idea of being able to take any question and then getting an easy answer that can be quoted chapter, and verse.  But I do not think that is how the bible works.  The bible was never meant to be an instruction book or some sort of answer key to life.  The bible is a book full of truth and mystery.  When we read the scripture we can find all kinds of potential paradoxes and questions without answers. For example, from the scripture we can learn that Jesus, as the messiah is fully God yet Jesus is also fully human.  We can learn that God is a God of unwavering justice, yet God is also a forgiving God of endless mercy.   We can learn that there is only one God, yet this one God is three distinct persons of Father, Son, and Spirit-united in perfect Trinity.  All of these are mysteries that do not have easy answers.  Studying the bible has been one of the primary focuses of my entire adult life, and I am convinced it is not a book that is meant to give us easy answers, it is a book that God uses to help us ask better questions.   

Research has shown that the older we get the less likely we are to ask questions and the less curious we become.   However, this research has also shown that maintaining curiosity in age promotes a higher level of mental, emotional and physical wellbeing in older adults.  This research has also shown a correlation that the more curious an adult is the less likely they are to have signs of dementia.  Curiosity is important factor for our overall health, and this is true for our spiritual health as well.   Our faith grows when we ask questions.  Often for a potted plant to be able to grow, it will have to be repotted into a bigger vessel so that it has space to grow.   When we stay curious and ask questions, we give our faith room to grow and space to get deeper.  In verses 9 and 10 this morning’s scripture puts forth that it is the Holy Spirit that helps us gain wisdom and understanding in the mysteries of faith.   When we are willing to ask questions and stay curious, then we give the Holy Spirit space in our lives to work and to grow our faith. 

 It is true, sometimes the questions we ask do not have good answers. In explaining his approach teaching science theoretical physicist Richard Feynman said, “I Would rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned.” I think that a similar approach is helpful in our faith.  Because there are some questions that do not have an easy, straight forward answer.    Sometimes we need to be willing to accept a little mystery.  However, that should not stop us from questioning.  If God is big enough to create the universe, then God is big enough to stand up to our questions, and again it is through staying curious and contemplating the questions without answers that our faith grows the most.  

This morning’s scripture puts forth that God had revealed in their age one of the great mysteries, which is the singular message that Paul brought to the Corinthians: Jesus Christ crucified.    Christian tradition has long found the essence of this great truth best captured in John 3:16 “For 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.”  Even this straight forward statement is full of mystery, full of big questions.   What compels God to love the world enough to make that big of a sacrifice?   Why does God love me enough have to include me in that?   What does it mean for me to truly and fully believe in Jesus?  And what does it look like  to live an eternal life?    These are questions that we contemplate every single days of earthly lives.  I believe doing so will give he Holy Spirit room to work, it will grow our faith, but we will also discover that the answer always goes a little deeper.  There is a always a little more to discover because we are asking curious questions of the infinite love of a forever God.  

This morning’s scripture is an invitation to explore the questions that do not have easy answers, the mysteries, and paradoxes of faith.  It is an invitation to grow in faith, but we have to be willing to stay curious.  In The Big Book of Christian Mysticism Carl McColman wrote, “Paradox is not always warmly received by those who want their faith to be watertight and easy to control.  If you have invested your heart and soul in the idea that God makes everything neat and tidy and your job is simply to obey the rules, then you will have no room  for paradoxical statements in your spirituality. . .But for those who regard faith as a relationship, paradox is not nearly so threatening. . .A spiritual paradox may provide evidence that God is bigger than our limited human capacity for reason and logic.” 

In this morning’s scripture Paul reiterates that the message he brought to the Corinthians was an invitation to a relationship with Jesus Christ-crucified.   Paul invited the Corinthians to contemplate the holy mystery that a crucified messiah grants the forgiveness of sins and eternal life to those who believe in him.   This is an open invitation that stands today.  So, friends, may we stay curious.   May we be willing to ask questions without easy answers, may we contemplate spiritual paradoxes, and may we explore holy mysteries.  In doing so may we give the Holy Spirit room to grow our faith as we learn a little bit more each day just how deep the love of God truly is.   

Scripture: 1 Corinthians: 1:18-31

Every now and then, real life plays out with the kind of timing and drama that feels like it comes from a movie. One of the clearest examples for me happened years ago at a youth ministry dodgeball tournament. For whatever reason, this event had a lot energy and hype.   There was a large turnout.  Teams showed up in matching outfits, with chants and strategies ready.  Early in the tournament, one team dropped into the losers’ bracket. The team consisted of a student from the youth group, two of his friends, and his girlfriend. It was obvious to everyone that one member of that team didn’t quite match the others in athletic ability. Still, they clawed their way through the bracket, refusing to get eliminated. Against all odds, they reached the finals.

Because it was double elimination, they had to beat the undefeated team twice. Incredibly, they won the first match. The anticipation grew as the second match started. The final game was electric. Every throw, dodge, and hit drew cheers. Eventually it came down to one player on each side—and they knocked each other out at the same time. We had planned for this rare scenario: a sudden‑death knockout. One player from each team would stand in a marked triangle, each with one ball. Step out or get hit, and you’re out. First team to two points wins.

Their opponents were a team of football players. Our underdog team saved their lone girl for last. The score was tied 1–1 when she stepped into the triangle. The whistle blew. The football player threw high. She ducked, fired low, and hit him clean.  The room exploded. Students rushed the floor and lifted her up. For a moment, it felt like living inside a movie.

This event sticks out because it is honestly the anomaly. Because it is so rare, we love it when the underdog wins, and when the player with more heart than skill carries the day.     Normally the kids picked last get relegated to being present and that is about it.  They never get passed the ball, they get put at the end of the batting order, and they rarely are given the opportunity to shine.   The reality is that the people who tend to be picked last just stop playing the game.  However, those who stick with a sport because they enjoy it, even if they are not the best of the best, get to play on the B-Team.   This morning’s scripture is encouraging, because it is a reminder that God will often use the people that the world relegates the B-Team, to transform the world. 

The church of Corinth is one that Paul knew well.   In Acts chapter 18 we read about how Paul established the church, and it states that Paul spent a year and a half with the Corinthians.  Paul wrote the letter of 1 Corinthians because the church had some friction, there was some division, and we get the impression that things were a little rocky.  However, I think some of that is understandable and maybe a little unavoidable.  I am not sure we always appreciate how much the early churches like the one in Corinth were charting new territory.   As followers of Jesus, they were taking steps into a new way to live.  They were striving to live as a community of believers in a way that was a radical departure from their culture.    

Paul acknowledges this in the beginning of this morning’s scripture.   The congregation of Corinth was a mixture of Jews and Greco-Romans.  Paul points out that the cultures they were immersed in find greater meaning in wisdom or signs, but that they should look to Jesus.   Paul points out that following Christ is going to set the Corinthians apart from their neighbors, because the kingdom of God works differently than the Empire of Rome.  To illustrate this, Paul points to the Corinthians themselves. 

Roman society was highly stratified, and there was no middle class.  A select few were in the upper group, and everyone else was not.   Yet it was a society with a strict social hierarchy and everyone had a good idea of who their superiors were, as well as who they could claim was under them.  For the most part the church of Corinth was not made up of the rich and powerful of the city.    This is a point that Eugene Peterson’s Message paraphrase helps bring out.   Petersen paraphrases verses 26-31 of this morning’s scripture like this: “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”

Petersen’s paraphrase might be a little harsh in calling the Corinthian church a bunch of nobodies, but he does a decent job at capturing Paul’s points in modern language.   The ways of the cross are foolishness to the world, and the fact that the believers of Corinth were not the wealthiest, most influential, highest prestige, citizens of the city is an example of that.  The wisdom of the age would have been in order to grow a movement and to make real change, then those with influence and power would be the prime people to recruit and rely upon.   Paul points out that was not God’s plan.  It was not God’s plan to use the somebodies of Corinth to bring about transformation, it was God’s plan to use the nobodies, the underdogs, the B-Team to be the start of a world changing movement.  Paul’s point in this morning’s scripture is that to a world that believes it knows better, God’s wisdom and God’s plans can appear like foolishness. 

This was true in the first century and it has been true throughout Christian history.  The people that God chooses to use rarely lines up with the people who would look like sure bets on paper.   There is a story from our Indiana United Methodist history that illustrates this.   To best understand this story, we need some historical background.  The Methodist movement came to what would become the United States when John Wesley sent two of his preachers Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke across the Atlantic.   This led to the founding of the Methodist Episcopal church.  Methodist preachers quickly left the established cities of the East Coast and pushed out with the pioneers into the frontiers.  The Methodist preachers led camp meetings, founded new churches, and preached in circuits.  During this time one the most inspiring and best Methodist preachers was a man named Harry Hoosier.  Thomas Coke once wrote in his journal about Harry: “I really believe he is one of the best preachers in the world. There is such an amazing power attends his preaching.”   Despite being such a gifted preacher, many people immediately discounted the man because of the color of his skin. 

Harry was a freedman who ended up working as the coach driver for Francis Asbury.  Even though he could not read and write, Harry showed a propensity for memorizing scripture.  Asbury began reading the bible to him aloud during their travels.  Over time, Harry began to preach but he was not allowed to preach to everyone.  As they traveled the south to tent meetings, Asbury would preach for the white people and then only afterwards Harry Hoosier was permitted to preach to the enslaved black people.  However, Harry’s preaching was so good and so compelling that many of the white people began sticking around.  As Asbury moved more to the frontier, Harry began to preach more regularly, and his message of grace moved the hearts and saved the souls of unknown number of rustic frontier folks.  

Despite the clear empowering of the Holy Spirit in the life of Harry Hoosier, because of the deeply rooted racism in America he never was fully treated as an equal.   Despite clearly showing fruit, he was never ordained as a Methodist minister.  Despite telling people about the love of God, he found himself ridiculed.  This was especially true of those on the East Coast.  At this time in established costal places like Virginia, the respectable elites of society did not have a high view of the rugged pioneers on the frontier.  They saw them as backwards, uncivilized, and unintelligent.  These mean hearted social elites believed that the pioneer’s willingness to listen to a black preacher was proof of their uncultured ways, so as a way to insult those on the frontier they were dismissed as Disciples of Harry Hoosier or Hoosiers for short.  Harry Hoosier passed away in 1806, but as the frontier pushed West into places like the Ohio River valley referring to rural pioneers as Hoosiers stuck at least in the territory that eventually became the state of Indiana. 

The primary sources are just not there to definitively say where the name Hoosiers originated, but the scholarship is strong that it originated with Harry Hoosier, a black man called by God to be a Methodist preacher.   It was the wisdom of the era that a person like Harry Hoosier could not be an effective preacher.  He was ridiculed, and so were those who responded to his message of grace.   The elites of 18th century saw Harry Hoosier preaching as foolishness, but he was exactly the person God intended to use as one of the best preachers in the world of his time.  

God calls and uses the people that the world might consider to only be worthy of the B-Team, and God uses them to make a real difference.  Harry Hoosier is just one of a great cloud of witnesses that testify to this truth.  Again, it was the wisdom of the age that someone like Harry Hoosier could not be an effective preacher.  What would have happened if Harry had listened to that wisdom?  How many people would have never come to know the saving love of Jesus Christ?   If he had listened to the wisdom of his age, then the good news would not have been shared.   

Similarly, the wisdom of this age is that bigger is always better.   I have to wonder how many people have held back from what God is calling them to do, because they have listened to the wrong wisdom?   How many people have assumed because they do not think they can get the biggest crowd, fill the largest building, or be #1 at something meaningful that it is not worth doing?  How many people are not following God to the best of their ability because they assume they are only B-Team material?    I fear, that the number, whatever it is, is too many. 

 We should take courage and comfort in the statements of this morning’s scripture.  We do not have to be all-star material to play the game, because God chooses the weak, God chooses the lowly-at least those deemed as such by the standards of the world.  Yet this scripture reminds us that “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” 

If you feel that when it comes to your faith and how you live it out, you have been sitting on the sidelines, then perhaps it is time to get in the game.   Perhaps, the dream that you have, the way that you think you might be able to make a difference, the idea you have to bring about real transformation, or the way that you can stand up for justice is the way that God is calling you.    You do not have to be the best at whatever that is, and it is OK if you feel like you are just B-team material, because God has consistently used the B-Team for the transformation of the world again and again.  Not for our own glory, but for the glory of Christ-crucified.  As it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

 So may you not follow the wisdom of this world but make you seek to follow the wisdom of God.  may you trust that God does not call the equipped, but God equips the called.   Where ever God is leading you, may you be willing to take that step in faith.  Brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome to the B-team, let’s go make disciple and transform the world.  

Scripture:  1 Corinthians 1:10-18

 One of my favorite things to do is play games, and I tend to play a lot of them.  Several years ago, when I was full time in youth ministry, I actually got a bit of a reputation as being “the games guy” and I was asked to be part of some conference level youth events specifically to lead games.  When I teach a game to people, I always begin by telling people: “The goal of the game is to win” and then I tell people how you do that.  I think it is important to begin with emphasizing that the goal is to win, because during the game it can be surprisingly easy to forget that.  A good example of this is a game that was my favorite to run in youth ministry, and one I first experienced as a player in college.  This game is played with a large group over a large area like a park or camp.  The group is divided into several teams and hidden throughout the large area are several green, plastic army men.  The goal of the game is to win, and the way to win is rescue all the army men before time runs out.   There are then a lot of complex rules about how teams can raid other team’s bases, how they can freeze people on other teams so they cannot keep searching, and lots of other ways for teams to trip each other up.  Often people then have a lot of fun establishing a base, making strategies, and then raiding bases of other teams to get the rescued army men to their base. 

It does not matter how long the time limit is set for, this game rarely gets won.  Not all of the plastic figures get found and rescued, and this is because teams get so busy trying to steal from one another or hinder one another that they forget the goal, they forget how to win.  In this game the goal is to win by finding all of the army men.  If that happens then everyone wins.   This game often leads to a great teaching moment, because the participants do realize that they assumed the goal was for their team to win by finding them all, not by working together. 

This morning’s scripture reminds me of that game, because this morning’s scripture points out that as people of faith, we often forget the goal.  The goal of Christianity is not to win, the goal is the gospel.  The goal is to share Jesus and the good news of the forgiveness of sins with everyone.   This is the main thing.   As followers of Jesus we should all be unified around this main thing, but as this morning’s scripture shows often division happens because we have lost sight of the goal and we do not let the main thing be the main thing. 
 
The letter of 1 Corinthians was written to the church of Corinth to address several issues that plagued that fellowship of believers.   The faith community in Corinth is one that was being torn apart by division over several different issues.  This morning’s scripture comes right at the beginning of the letter, and he starts off by addressing a source of division that involved him personally. Like the pundits on an ESPN talk show, backing their favorite team, I imagine the Corinthians bickering about why their chosen teacher is the best one to follow.    Some thought Paul was the best teacher of the gospel.  After all, Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. He was successful at founding new churches, and he had a down-to-earth reputation of working alongside the people.   Cephas, who we better known as Peter was one of Jesus’ twelve disciples.  He is the one who Jesus himself had said his church would be built upon.   Clearly, Peter’s reputation was established, and he was well known if the Corinthians had heard of him.    Finally, Apollos was the young gun.  The book of Acts describes Apollos by stating “He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.  He had been instructed in the ways of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor.”   We get the idea that the Corinthian church was treating these three preachers like celebrities and they had picked their favorites, and instead of realizing that all three men were playing for the same team, this became a source of division in the church of Corinth.

 Paul rightly appeals to the Corinthians to cut this out.  He points this out through the use of rhetorical questions in verse 13, “Is Christ divided?  Was Paul crucified for you?  Were you baptized in the name of Paul?”   Paul seeks to point out to the Corinthians that they have lost sight of the goal, that they are not keeping the main thing the main thing.  He reminds them that it does not matter who baptized who, and he states in verse 17, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.”

The church in Corinth had a problem with division.  What is interesting though is that dividing into factions was not limited to the Corinthian church.   To the churches of the regions of Galatia, Paul warned them to avoid this by listing dissensions and factions among a list of sinful behavior.   To the church of Ephesus, Paul encouraged them to remember that “there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”   Giving into this base urge to pick sides is a shockingly common problem in the early church.  

Unfortunately, it has continued to be a problem for followers of Jesus.   I have nothing against there being different Christian denominations.  In fact, I think there is value in having different faith communities with different traditions, with different styles, with a different emphasis, and even with a variety in our understandings.   I think there is value to having diversity in Christian expression because a diversity in Christian expression can enable the good news of Jesus Christ to reach more people.   Unfortunately, I know not everyone feels that way, because I know that there are some branches of the Christian tree that believe other branches do not belong.  There are some denominations, churches, or Christian expressions that spend a lot of time and energy decrying how other denominations, churches, or Christian expressions are not “real” Christians.   This is the kind of factionalism that Paul was writing against in this morning’s scripture.  
 
This kind of picking sides hinders the gospel; it holds back the universal mission to make disciples of all the nations.  Sadly, the data shows this is happening.  Data from pew research shows that no major Christian tradition is growing in the US today.  Some are holding steady, but that is about it.   While some churches do report growth, research has found that 94% of all reported church growth is transfer growth, where people change the church, they are involved with.   Again, I have no problem with people finding a faith community that works best for them.  However, if that much of growth is from transferring, this means only 3-5% of reported church growth is a result of people coming to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ for the first time.  The number of followers of Jesus is not currently increasing in the United States.  Perhaps, collectively as the church in America we have lost sight of the goal.   The goal of the church is not to grow just for the sake of growth, the goal of the church is to share the gospel, the goal is to proclaim the message of the cross, and the goal make disciples of Jesus Christ. 

We cannot move the needle much when it comes to these kinds of national trends.  What we can do is focus on how we are doing on the local or personal level.   We can check our own focus to make sure we are keeping the main thing the main thing.   We can commit as a faith community, to live into Paul’s appeal in this morning’s scripture.   In Verses 10 and 11 he wrote “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.”   This sounds great and inspirational, but when we begin to break it down it can be a bit troubling.   What exactly does it mean to be perfectly united in mind and thought?      

 Perhaps a better way to come to the question is to ask what are we supposed to be perfectly united about?   Because we do not have to agree about everything.  Agreeing to be part of a faith community should not be agreeing to a long list of narrowly held beliefs and shunning everyone who falls out of line.  Scriptures like this morning are a call to unity among believers, but unity is not uniformity.   John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement once wrote, “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike?  May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion?  Without all doubt, we may.” 

There is a statement that comes out of the Moravian tradition that speaks to more to this idea.  While today, the Moravians may be a lesser-known denomination, they had a lot of influence on John Wesley’s thinking.  As such this Moravian wisdom has found its way into the United Methodist church and you may have encountered it before.   The saying states, “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things love.”   The concept is that the beliefs most vital to the Christian faith is where we must agree with one another, have no division and be perfectly united in mind and thought.   In everything that is not an essential core belief of Christianity, then as believers we are free to form our own opinions. Our faith should inform all our opinions and beliefs.  It is very possible for two Christians to rely on their biblical understanding and faith experience but still come to different conclusions on non-essentials.   That is fine because we are called to unity not uniformity.   Finally, no matter what love covers all.   This means it does not matter how much we disagree with someone; we love them anyway.   We recognize that they are a precious creation of God that has sacred worth, and we value them for that.  

This naturally leads to the question of what is essential and what is non-essential.  Fortunately, church tradition defines this for us with the creeds, which are essentially statements of essential belief.   The most well-known creed, which comes from the 5th century but has roots that stretch back as far as the 2nd century,  is what is traditionally called the Apostle’s Creed.   This creed states:   I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.  I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin  Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.  On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.  I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.  Amen. 

Those are the essentials.  God the Father, Jesus the son-who was, and is, and is to come, and the Holy Spirit.   When we are of one mind about these essentials and we consider that statement of faith to be the cornerstone of all that we believe, then unity as described in this scripture becomes possible.   What unites us is the power of the cross of Christ, and that gospel should have more power in our lives than every other message there is.    Often the reason why there is conflict in the body of Christ, the reason why there is division is because we forget this.  We forget that the goal is not to win some culture war.  The goal is not even to grow.  The goal is to share Jesus so that all may be saved by the power of the cross.    

So may we keep the main thing the main thing.   May we not forget what the goal is, what the mission is, and may we be united in mind and thought.  This does not mean we have to always agree about all the details.  May we seek unity and not uniformity.  As the people of God may we glorify God by being perfectly united in mind and thought by how we love one another.     May we be united in our belief that Jesus a great savior and may we be committed to sharing that good news with all.  

Scripture:  John 1:29-42

It is estimated that the average person in the United States is exposed to at least 4,000 advertisements every single day.   Due to this ubiquity, without thinking about it we are all fairly good at filtering out the noise.  We are exposed to so many advertisements that we have learned to naturally ignore most of them, so we do not really register how many advertisements we see.   At the same time nearly every form of media- radio, television, social media- that we engage with daily uses advertising revenue as the primary business model.  This has created an arms-race of sorts where consumers get naturally better at ignoring advertising and advertisers get better at getting through to the people they want to buy products.  Advertisers use the cutting edge of science and technology to create the most effective advertisements.  For instance, if you use social media, you likely have had the experience where it feels like you start seeing advertisements for something just because you thought about it.  Advertising is also big business, and around $400 billion is spent on advertising every year.   Despite all the money spent and all of the algorithms used, the most effective advertising cannot be bought.  The best kind of advertising that a product can possibly hope for is word of mouth, where people tell other people about their positive experience of a product.  Marketing research has found that 92% of people trust recommendations from a friend, and word of mouth influences up to 50% of all purchasing decisions.

We see a similar principle at work in this morning’s scripture.  When it comes to sharing the good new of Jesus Christ, the most effective strategy is not a large advertising campaign, it is not a polished, concert level Sunday morning production, and it is not a finely tuned content that works the social media algorithms to generates likes and shares.  As this morning’s scripture demonstrates the most effective way to share the good news of Jesus Christ is the same as it has always been.  It is an invitation to come and see.

This morning’s scripture contains two small stories.  Each one gives us a glimpse of those early days of Jesus’ ministry, and each story shares with us how we can share the good news.  In the first story John the Baptist testifies about Jesus.  This scripture is an interesting one, because the gospel of John does not actually contain anything about the events of Jesus’ baptism.   Instead, what we get is the event recounted from the perspective of John the Baptist.  John knew that the whole purpose of his ministry was to prepare the way for the one who would take away the sins of the world, and at the baptism of Jesus it was confirmed to him Jesus is the One.   In this morning’s scripture he shares his testimony.   He shares his own experience with Jesus, where he saw the Spirit come down, where he heard God, the Father declare “this is my son, with whom I am well pleased.”   Based off his experience, John knew that Jesus was the messiah which is why he could confidently say, “I have seen and I testify.”

   Based off his personal experience John was able to declare that Jesus is the God’s Chosen One.  “I have seen and I can testify” is the first way that we can share the good news of the gospel.  Yet a lot of people are not too comfortable with this idea. One of the biggest objections that is given for why people feel they cannot share the good news with others, is they do not feel qualified to do so.  We have this mistaken idea that to share the good news we must be good at arguing or debating what we believe.   We got this wrong idea that the best way to convince someone to our point of view is to prove we are right by pointing out they are wrong.  It has been my consistent observation that this does not work.
  Perhaps you have been at big public events and have seen bullhorn guys, these are street preachers with a megaphone shouting into the crowd. I attend Gen Con in Indianapolis every year, and most years there is a street preacher trying to get people to listen to him. While I have no doubt about the faith convictions and genuine sincerity of these people, the message they are preaching is not great.  Often the message they are preaching is based on telling people how wrong they are, how evil their actions are, and how they need to turn or burn.  I do not think this is the best way to testify to the goodness of God.  Telling people, they are wrong is not terribly effective. I think the number of people who have been argued to salvation is close to zero.

I get the temptation to want to change someone’s mind by proving we are right.  We like to be right, and we imagine that we can “win a soul” through showing how right we are.  But that language reveals just how problematic the idea is.  The whole concept of winning a soul makes salvation something to be won or lost, it makes it an argument achieve victory in.   Jesus was not God’s chosen one to win souls, Jesus came to reconcile all people back to God.  Jesus did not come to conquer, but to restore.    In this morning’s scripture, John the Baptist does not try to win an argument or convince someone of his rightness.  Instead, he testifies to his experience with Jesus and how this experience pointed him back to God. 

While many may not feel confident enough in their knowledge to debate Christianity, all of us who know Jesus, should have a story to tell.   We can all testify to what we have seen and how we have experienced God at work in our lives.    We should be able to tell of how God protected us, how Jesus healed broken hearts and shattered souls, or how the holy spirit empowered us in the most miraculous ways.   We should be able to speak about the all surrounding, all-consuming, never-ending love of God and how experiencing that love has changed our lives for the better.  We should be able to testify to the blessed assurance we have that even if we are great sinners, Jesus is a greater savior- and best of all God is still with us!  In order to share the good news of Jesus Christ, we do not need to have all the answers, nor do we need to be a world class debater.  It is far more effective to tell others how we have personally experienced God’s love and how we have been impacted by grace.   Like John we should be able to say “I have seen and I testify that this is God’s chosen one.”

The second story we get in this morning’s scripture is Jesus first encounter with the people who would become some of his first disciples.  The scripture tells us that these two were already people who were following John and they had heard John’s testimony of who Jesus truly is.  The scripture tells us that it was Andrew and unnamed disciple that tradition identifies as John himself.  They spot Jesus and out of curiosity begin following him.   Jesus calls them out on this by asking what they are doing, and they very awkwardly answer with “where are you staying?” 

That was not what they truly wanted to know.   That is what they asked but they truly wanted to know is “who are you?”  “Is it true?  Are you the Messiah?”   Jesus answered their questions, both the one they asked, and their unasked ones with one of the best and perhaps most Jesus-like answers ever, “Come and you will see.”  They spend the day with him, and these two people become part of Jesus twelve disciples.     The scripture does not share with us what happened during that day they spent with Jesus, but whatever happened it made believers out of them.    It all started though with the invitation to “come and see.”    Jesus did not just tell them the good news, he showed it to them.   

 Now we should acknowledge up front that it is easier for Jesus to show someone the good news, after all he is the Good News!  However, if we kept reading on in the gospel of John, then we see the same strategy is used when Jesus calls his next disciples.  When Phillip goes to tell his friend Nathaniel about Jesus the way he convinces Nathaniel is he tells him to “come and see.”
 
It is one thing to tell people about our faith.  It is quite another one to show them.  Telling people are experience with Jesus is good but showing them how our faith is actively changing our life is better.  We all know the common platitude; actions speak louder than words.   This has always been true, but perhaps it hits harder today.  If we want to share Jesus with an unbelieving world, then telling people Jesus loves you is not as effective as showing them that Jesus loves you.  We are going to need to go to where they are with open hands and extend the invitation to “come and see.”

  If we are going to invite people to come and see then we need to make sure we have something to show them.   There are two primary ways that we can do this.  The first way is we live differently.   Catholic author Brennan Manning got to the heart of this when he said, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.  That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”   As Christians we should live as “little Christs”.  The way that we live our lives, the way that we talk, the way that we treat others, and the way that we conduct ourselves (even when no one else is looking) should reflect Jesus.  In this morning’s scripture Jesus did not tell Andrew and John he was the Messiah he showed them through his actions.  In the same way our desire to follow God should be seen in how we live, in how we love, and in how we serve.  We should not just tell people we are forgiven, loved, and new creations in Christ.  Through our commitment to living as individuals transformed by grace, we should be able to clearly show them that through Christ we have been made new. 

 The second primary way that we can make sure we have something to show is that we can be the church.   The bible describes the church as the body of Christ.  It is through the church reaching out, serving others, and meeting needs that the world can see Christ at work in the world.   Church cannot just be a building we spend an hour in once a week, because the church is not the building, the church is the body of Christ made up all who seek to follow him.  When we gather to worship on Sunday morning, we are the church.  When we go to work on Monday morning or watch the basketball game on Thursday night, we are still the church.   Church needs to be the people of God doing the work of God for the glory of God.  Through our collective commitment to seeing the needs of this world and meeting the needs, then we can show that Jesus’s love is transformative.  We will not just be stating that we will be demonstrating it, we will be giving people something to come and see.

If you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus, then you have a holy responsibility to share the good news of Jesus with others.   I know it is easy to put Christian in our social media profiles or put a bumper sticker on the back of the car, but those statements will get ignored like the thousands of advertisements we ignore daily.   Even if it requires us to share our story or put in the time to serve others, may we be willing to share the good news of Jesus Christ.  Friends, the world needs a savoir, so may we be willing to testify to how we have experienced the Lord.  People need Jesus, so may we be able to say “come and see”.  May we show others the body of Christ and may they experience the love of Christ through how we love and care them.  May we testify to our experience with Christ, may we extend invite, and may we give people something to come and see.  May we let the world know that our lives have been changed by the Lord of love.   May we pass it on. 
 
 

Scripture:  Acts 10:34-43

It is well known and established that I am a huge Star Wars fan, so it sometimes comes as a surprise to some that I am also a fan of Star Trek.   They are very different takes on science fiction, and I clearly think there is room to really enjoy both.  However, I was not always a Star Trek fan.  What really pulled me into Star Trek was the reboot movie starring Chris Pine as Captain Kirk that came out in 2009.  Initially I liked this movie because honestly it has a lot more in common with the action and high adventure of Star Wars than the cerebral, hard sci-fi of classic Star Trek.  However, watching that movie led me to wanting to see more Star Trek. Thanks to streaming service I could, and that is what I did. Series after series, movie after movie.  I expanded into reading Star Trek novels and playing Star Trek games.   Within three to four years, I went from not caring much about Star Trek to considering myself a  big and invested fan.  This probably would not have happened if it were not the 2009 movie.   

In 2015, a local movie theater was doing a screening of my favorite Star Trek movie: The Wrath of Kahn.   We attended one of the showings with a group of people, one of which was a big enough of a Trekkie that she had a star trek uniform.  Before the movie started I was talking with her, and we were interrupted by some guy behind us saying something to the effect of “why are you wearing that?”

It was said with a derogatory tone, full of vitriol.  Capturing our attention, we turned to him, and he immediately apologized.  He saw that she was wearing an original series uniform.  He had initially mistaken it for a uniform from that 2009 reboot movie, and he was concerned that she was not a “real fan” of “real Star Trek”.   I guess in this guy’s view anyone who liked the new Star Trek movies, the ones that pulled me into Stark Trek, did not count.  They were not real fans.  They did not belong.   He was apparently so concerned about this that before he realized he mistakenly misidentified the uniform he was going to call out a woman he had never met.  This guy was looking to be a gatekeeper.   Gate keeping is when someone takes it upon themselves to decide who does or does not have access to a community or identity based on their standards.  Unfortunately, gate keeping happens a lot.  For instance, if you are a diehard fan of a sports team then you have likely heard someone else complain about “bandwagon fans”. 

Unfortunately, gatekeeping has long been a problem in faith as well.   From close to the very beginning of Christianity have been people who have appointed themselves as gatekeepers who spend a lot of energy and effort to determine who is adhering to doctrinal purity and meeting their arbitrary standard.  It is somewhat odd that this has been a reoccurring problem in Christianity, because this is an issue that was hashed out at the very beginning of the Christian faith.   In the very beginning, there was a real question about who salvation was actually for.  For Peter, this question was definitively answered in this morning’s scripture.   There are no outsiders to God’s love, and sometimes for people to experience it we need to get out of the way. 

It may seem obvious to say that salvation through Christ is for everyone today, but that was not so clear in the first century.   The question, “who is grace for?  Is it for the Jews or for everyone?” is a question that is addressed in the gospels, in Acts, and in several of the epistles.  Again, the answer seems obvious to us today, but if we try to place ourselves in the context of the first Jesus followers, we can see how it becomes less clear quickly.  We need to remember that Jesus was a Jew.  The apostles were all Jews, and all the members of the early church that formed in Jerusalem were Jewish.  The God that Jesus called Father is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and the God of the twelve tribes of Israel.   Especially when compared the religious attitudes and culture of the greater Greco-Roman culture, Christianity did have more in common and probably felt like an offshoot of Judaism. 

This becomes clearer when human tribalism comes into play, because the Jewish people of the first century made a clear distinction between Jews and Gentiles.  The key difference is that the Jews were God’s chosen people and the gentiles were not.  The Jews followed God’s law outlined in the Torah to maintain ritual cleanliness and the gentiles did not.  By the time of the first century this had developed that Jews were not to eat with or even associate with gentiles so that they did not become unclean by transference.  There was a strong “us and them” sense in first century Israel and it was strongly enforced by cultural forces.   All indications are that at least for the first several months, the early church- those who followed Jesus- followed these same cultural lines, and salvation through Christ was only presented by the disciples to fellow Jews.  

This all begins to change in Acts chapter 10.  This morning’s scripture comes from closer to the end of that story.  It began though with a gentile who honored God but had not converted to Judaism, reaching out to Peter.   To prepare Peter for this encounter God gave him a vision which communicated the greater truth of God’s grace for all.   Peter goes to Cornelius’ house.  His encounter there begins to change Peter’s heart and mind.   Peter expresses as much in this morning’s scripture.  In verse 34 when he begins to speak, he says, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.”  

 Peter then goes on to give a recount of the basics of the gospel message that he himself was a witness to.  The message, the good news had not changed, what changed was Peter’s understanding of it.  He began to realize that the good news was not just for one people group.  It is in this scripture that he realizes that when Jesus said, “I will draw all people to myself”, that Jesus really meant all people-not just his people.  This morning’s scripture is when Peter realizes that he needs to get out of the way, open the gates, and not hinder people coming to Jesus.  While we stopped at verse 43, this culminates in verse 47 when Peter declares about Cornelius and the other gentiles, “surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water.”

In the narrative of the bible, this morning’s scripture is the turning point where the good news truly starts being proclaimed for all.  This morning’s scripture is only the first movement though.  Starting in chapter 11 the narrative of Acts begins to turn from the acts of Peter and the other original disciples to the acts of Paul as the apostle to the gentiles.   The book of Acts records how the good news of Jesus Christ was shared with Jerusalem, then all of Israel and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth.   This was the plan of Jesus laid out at the beginning of Acts, and that plan always included extending grace to all the peoples regardless of their ethnic or religious origins.  It is in this morning’s scripture that Peter begins to grasp that even the gentiles can be saved, this is where he realizes the fundamental truth that God does not show favoritism and there are no outsiders to God’s love.   

Even though Peter began to move in this direction the issue between Jews and Gentiles and salvation in Christ comes up again in Acts.  It is also an issue that Paul wrote about extensively in several of his letters.  While the issue does eventually get settled, it does not take long before for the followers of Jesus were once again asking who salvation is for. 
Looking back on our Christian history, we have done this in very formal ways.  Sometimes Christians have attempted to divide themselves into the right kind of believers and the wrong kind of believers, but most often we make walls between believers and non-believers.  Historically, these walls are not formal declarations, but they are beliefs that are held up by cultural norms.  We create expectations of how we think good Christians are supposed to act, but often these added expectations are based more in what makes us comfortable and less in grace. 

There can be an expectation that to follow Jesus someone has to dress a certain way, talk a certain way, vote a certain way, or hold a specific set of cultural values.  This is a form of gatekeeping; it is trying to define who salvation is for.  When this happens, then people who do not fit the mold, the people whose identity falls outside the lines are left to feel that church is not for them, Chistiantiy is not where they belong, or Jesus is not meant to be their savior.  Our preferences, our sensibilities, and our comfort can get in the way of people getting to Jesus.  Stories of church hurt, stories of people who have had communities of faith hurt them, by communicating they do not belong are far too common. That is not how it should be.  Friends, if our personal preferences, if our comfortability is getting in the way of people getting to Jesus, then we must get out of the way.    God does not show favoritism, and neither should we. 

Our baptism liturgy does a great job of reminding us of this. It always begins with “through the sacrament of baptism we are initiated into Christ’s holy church.  We are incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation and given new birth through water and the Spirit.  All this is God’s gift, offered to us without price.”  As this morning’s scripture proclaims, “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Salvation and the forgiveness of sins is a free gift offered to all people.   To receive this gift does not require anyone to have it all figured out.  No one has to meet a certain threshold of good actions or specific behavior before God will accept them.  That is true for each and every one of us, and it is also true for everyone else out there as well.  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.  God does not show favoritism.  There are no outsiders to God’s love. 

In this morning’s scripture Peter first realized that God’s love was for the gentiles as well as the Jews.   Today, we need to more fully realize just what it means that God love everyone.  We all have our own personal preferences, we all have our own viewpoints of what we think is best, and we all have people that we tend to be more comfortable with.   While that is a true, may we not let our personal preferences hinder the gospel.  May we not stand between people and Jesus.  May we not gatekeep the good news.   May we realize that every person we will ever interact with is a person that God loves so much that God was willing to give God’s son for.  If God loves them that much, then perhaps we should as well.  May we open the gates of God’s love wide.  For the early church the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the non-Jews in this morning’s scripture was confirmation that there is grace enough for the Jews and the gentiles.   That is still true today.  There is grace enough for everyone, so may we boldly go and share the good news of Jesus Christ.   

Scripture:  John 1:1-18

One of the mainstays of fan conventions are celebrity meet and greets.   For a fee, fans can get a chance to be face to face with the actors who portrayed their favorite characters, get an autographed headshot, or even take a picture with them.   These meet and greets are incredibly popular, and they often sell out.   The more well known the actor the more they can charge.  For example, Mark Hamill, who is most well known for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies, charged $400 for an autograph at a FanExpo in the United Kingdom this summer.   While that is on the high end, there were still plenty of fans willing to pay it because Luke Skywalker is an iconic, childhood defining character for a whole lot of people. 

Given that people are willing to spend hundreds of dollars for the opportunity to spend a few moments with Mark Hamill, a bit from the Jimmy Kimmel show that aired a couple of weeks ago was surprising.   In this segment Mark Hamill stood on his star along the Hollywood walk of fame.  He was dressed in plain clothes, including a T-shirt with his picture and name on it.  Despite that the segment shows not a single person recognizing him.   At one point a person dressed in a Star Wars costume is shown interacting with him but not recognizing who is in front of him.  One the one hand it is kind of surprising.  Given all the people who visit the Hollywood walk of fame it seems at least one person would have recognized one of the stars depicted on it.   However, on the one hand it makes sense, because no one was expecting to see Mark Hamill, and they never thought they would pass by him on the street.   It is a humorous segment, but it also sheds some light on this morning’s scripture. 
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Verse 11 of this morning’s scripture states that Jeus “came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”  This is a point that the gospel of John makes throughout.  The religious leaders, the ones who knew all of the messianic passages from the prophets, the ones who should have recognized the incarnation of God, largely missed it.   Just like fans missed Mark Hamill in the Jimmy Kimmel segment because how they encountered him on the sidewalk was the kind of encounter they were expecting.  

This morning’s scripture proclaims that Jesus is the light of the world and that “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”    We celebrate that the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We celebrate that God is with us, but the reality is that many people on this world still miss it.  The light has come, but there are many who still only see darkness.  The light of the world has come, and we get to help people see it. 

Each of the gospel writers sought to tell the story of Jesus to a specific audience with a specific emphasis they wanted to communicate.  For instance, the gospel of Matthew puts more effort than the other gospels on establishing that Jesus is the Jewish messiah who fulfilled prophecies. The gospel of John puts more emphasis than the other gospels on the divine nature of Jesus.   The gospel of John seeks to establish that not only is Jesus the Messiah, not only is Jesus the son of God, but that Jesus is God incarnate.   This is why the gospel of John does not start with a birth narrative like Matthew and Luke.  Instead, it starts with “In the beginning” and it establishes that the word was with God and that the word was God.  The gospel of John makes it clear in this opening section that this Word that is the light of all humanity, and that the word became flesh in the person of Jesus.  

The incarnational nature of Jesus, that Jesus is fully God and fully man is a core belief of Christianity.  Yet it is one that has always courted controversy.   In the first couple hundred years after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, there were several people who floated alternate ideas than the incarnation.  The hang up for these people was that if Jesus was truly God, and suffered on the cross, then that means God suffered on the cross.  The idea of a suffering God bothered the people of the ancient world.  While the church fathers eventually got this doctrine hashed out in the Nicaean Creed, the incarnation is still a belief that can trouble people today, and it is still a belief that some can have a hard time accepting. 

To help teach this concept there was a story written by Louis Cassels in 1959 and then featured by Paul Harvey in 1960.   This simple story entitled, the Parable of the Birds, does a great job at explaining why we need the incarnation.   Once upon a time there was a man who was a kind, decent, mostly good man, generous to his family, and he dealt with others with integrity.  Despite being a man of morals, he was not religious.   For him, there was a major hang up he had.  He just couldn't swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man.

"I'm truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, “But I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve." He said he'd feel like a hypocrite. That he'd much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. So, he stayed while his family went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries get heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read the newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound, then another, and then another — sort of a thump or a thud.

When he went to the front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window. Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the shed in the backyard.  It would provide warm shelter if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on a coat and trampled through the deepening snow to the shed He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in.

 He figured food would entice them. So, he hurried back to the house, fetched breadcrumbs, sprinkled them on the snow. He made a trail to the brightly lit wide-open shed. To his dismay, the birds ignored the breadcrumbs and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow.

He tried catching them. He then tried shooing them into the shed by walking around them waving his arms. But they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted shed. And then he realized that they were afraid of him. To the birds, he reasoned, “I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me…that I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how?
Any move he made tended to frighten and confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him. "If only I could be a bird," he thought to himself, "and mingle with them speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe warm shed. But I would have to be one of them so they could see, and hear, and understand."

At that moment, the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sound of the wind. And he stood listening to the bells proclaiming the birth of a savior he sank to his knees in the snow. "Now I understand," he whispered, "now I see why you had to do it."

Like the birds, all of humanity is shivering in the cold.  Our sin has cut us off from the warmth, light, and love of God that we were created to experience.  Only God is big enough to save us from ourselves.  Yet we are not big enough to understand God, and only another person can lead us to the warmth, light, and love of God.  To be saved from our sin we need both God and human.  We need the Incarnation.  We need Jesus, the light of the world to show us the way.  
I realize that for many of you, perhaps most of you, on this day I might be preaching to the choir.   Verse 12 of this morning’s scripture states, “To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”  I realize that many of us here are those who have received him and believe in his name.   And yet, there are so many people who are still lost in the darkness.   There are so many people who do not see the light that we see.   Even though the light has come into the world, even though the world was made through him, there are still so many people that do not recognize him.  We cannot compel anyone to believe, but we can help them see the light that is already there.  

We can see a good example of this on most nights.  While it is possible, it takes a lot of cloud cover to hide a full moon.   There are times when the moon shines brightly enough to bring illumination to the darkness of night.   It does not matter how bright the moon looks in the night sky, it is still just a rock in space.   The moon is incapable of generating any light on its own.  The illuminated moon we see at night is only possible because the moon reflects the light of the sun.  Moonlight is reflected sunlight.  In the same way, our lives should reflect the light of the world.  As Christians we should reflect the light of our savior, of God’s only son, into the world.  In the depth of night, the moon acts as the intermediary that continues to reflect light into the dark world.  In the same way, we as Christians should reflect the light of God’s love into the world. 

We cannot save anyone.  It is Jesus who does that.  It is through Jesus that grace and truth come.  The light has already come, so we are not the light, but we can reflect the light.   There are so many people who are lost in darkness, there are so many people who are hurting and alone.  There are so many people who need Jesus.   If we truly want to see transformation in this world, if we honestly want to see souls saved, and disciples made.  Then we must go to the places where there is darkness still, we must go to where there is brokenness, we must go to where there are troubles, and then we reflect the light.   We follow the example of Jesus.  We love the hard to love, we serve others above ourselves, and we have compassion for those who often only experience judgement.   This morning’s scripture boldly proclaims, “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”   If we want to see real transformation in this world, in this community, then we prove it by reflecting the light from the Son in the dark corners of our neighborhood.   We light it up, and in doing so our loving actions will show people Jesus.   

People often miss what is right in front of them, because they are not expecting to see it.  Perhaps one of the reasons why so many people have not yet found Jesus is because they are not expecting to find him.  They are so accustomed to the darkness, coldness, and lack of hope that is found in the world that they do not expect the hope of salvation, the warmth of God’s love and the light of Christ.   This morning’s scripture established a fundamental belief, that Jesus is fully God and fully man.   For those who do believe in his name, this morning’s scripture also contains a powerful promise: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  May we believe that is true, and may that belief fill us with an unbreakable hope.  May we take that belief beyond the walls of this building out into this community.   May we reflect the light of Jesus the son, the word of God was with God in the beginning, who through him all things have been made, and who is God- may we reflect his holy light into Rensselaer and light it up.