Scripture: Romans 12:9-21

 For a lot of people music is a big motivator when it comes to working out.  The type of music that people favor though depends on the workout.   While all lists are subjective, I found a list of workout songs for running on the website Marathon Handbook while Muscle and Fitness put out a list of the best weightlifting songs.  These lists were very different.  The running list tended to feature high energy songs with a fast beat count while the lifting songs tended to feature hard rock with guitar power riffs.  However, there was one song that appeared on both lists: Eye of the Tiger by Survivor.  Even if you are not familiar with the song by name, you have heard it because this song was made popular by the Rocky movies, and it is the ultimate training montage song.  

 Training montages are a movie trope that was perfected in 80’s sports movies but have shown up in just about every genre of movie since then.   These sequences cut from training scene to training scene, always set to a catchy song of some sort.  At the beginning of the montage the people training are hopeless and unskilled, but by the end of a 2–3-minute song they have gone from zero to hero.  Training montages are effective storytelling in cinema, but they have the detriment of making improvement look easy.   A well-done training montage can make the viewer feel like I too could do this, but the reality is that learning a new skill, especially to an expert level, takes longer than one power ballad.

 The reality is that before we can get to the level that is shown at the end of a training montage, we first have to learn the nuts-and-bolts basics of the skill.  Often learning the fundamentals feels a long way from where we see ourselves being, but learning a new skill is not possible without first learning and struggling through the basics.  This is true of sports, it is true of artistic endeavors like playing musical instruments, and it is true of professional skills.  It is also true of our faith.   This morning’s scripture gives us the nuts and bolts fundamentals of how we live as a disciple of Christ. 

Sometimes what keeps us away from trying new skills is that it is intimidating to learn because there is so much to remember.   It can be intimidating because there are so many steps, so many things to keep straight, and so many individual aspects to the skill that we do not even know where to start.   I know this is how I felt with golf when I attempted that.  I just wanted the ball down the fairway, but there were so many instructions about how to stand, how to hold the club, how to swing, how to follow through, that I would be so focused on trying to remember all of this at once that I would often miss the ball all together.  This morning’s scripture has a bit of the same problem. 

It comes from the end of Romans where Paul has finished his big theological points, and he has moved on to more practical points about how to live daily life as Christians.   Paul gives a rabid fire list of directives in this short scripture, to the point it can be intimidating.  In this scripture he tells us that we should 1) be devoted to one another in love 2) honor one another 3) not lack in zeal but keep spiritual fervor serving the Lord  4) by joyful in hope 5) patient in affliction  6) faithful in prayer  7)  share and practice hospitality  8) Bless those who persecute 9) do not curse 10) Rejoice with those who rejoice 11) Mourn with those who mourn  12) Live in harmony  13) do not be proud  14) do not be conceited  15) do not repay evil for evil  16) live at peace with everyone  17)  do not take revenge and 18) overcome evil with good.  That is eighteen directives in just 11 verses!   There is so much that it can be hard to know where to start, and it can feel overwhelming.  

One of the skills that the best coaches and teachers have is that they are able to break down a more complex subject and then teach it in sections.   A similar approach can be taken to this scripture.  This list of directives can be broken down into three categories: 1) Our daily attitude 2) how we relate to each other  3) how we relate to others.  In each category there are multiple verses.  Again, to try and tackle all of them it can feel overwhelming but we can focus on a couple of points from each. 

               When it comes to how we should approach each day this scripture gives some practical advice.   Verse 11, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”  I do not know if you have ever had the opportunity to take part on a mission trip, but they are amazing experiences because they give hands on experience of living this scripture out.  From my experience, by day three of a mission trip most people have some aches and pains, and they are more tired than normal, but zeal is not lacking.  This is because everyone wakes up with purpose and intention to serve the Lord.  Knowing that the work of the day is making a difference, building God’s kingdom, and tangibly making the love of God known goes long way to keeping up one’s spiritual fervor and zeal.   Perhaps, we could keep that same approach to our daily lives.  Because every day is a gift from God and every day is an opportunity to serve the Lord and make a difference in the world.   How we are to do that is not as clear cut in daily lives as it is on a mission trip but everyday provides the opportunity.   Perhaps instead of approaching every day as another one to grind through, we could see the day as a new adventure to discover how we can encounter God in the ordinary. 

               Paul summarizes the viewpoint of how we should relate to each other as fellow followers of Christ in verse 10: “Be devoted to one another in love.  Honor one another above yourselves.”    Throughout this morning’s scripture he then gives three directives about how we do this.  The first is we share with those in need.  That sounds easy enough, but often we inadvertently trip each other up on actually doing this.  I have full confidence that all of you would be willing to put this scripture into practice.   If another member of this congregation came to you with a need, and you could meet it, then you absolutely would.   I am also fairly confident that most of us would much prefer to keep our needs to ourselves.   Often, we do not give our siblings in Christ the opportunity to practice this scripture, because we do not want to admit that we need help, we want to handle it ourselves.   This is why in this scripture Paul also tells us do not be proud and do not be conceited.  If our desire to be self sufficient and not rely on anyone else is born out of pride and conceit, then it is not a virtue. 

               By God’s design, it is in the Christian community of the church that we grow in God’s love because we practice loving one another with the very love of God.   We cannot practice if we do not give each other the opportunity.  Again, I truly believe that you all would be quick to help a brother or sister in Christ out in love, but this only happens if all of are willing to accept the help of each other.  

               Sometimes doing this can be easier than we think.  The second two directives related to how we do this are to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.   To do this, often all we have to do is show up.  I am reminded of a story that Mark Hall, the lead singer of Casting Crowns, tells about Steven.   Steven was a big, football player, in the small Alabama town where Mark Hall was working as a youth minister.   Steven’s father was killed in a tragic work accident.  Several of the teens in Mark’s youth group were friends with Steven and they wanted to help him, but they did not know what to do, they did not know what to say, they did not know what scriptures to quote.  Mark encouraged them just to be there with them.   In the book Lifestories he writes about what happened next, “As I pulled in [the funeral home parking lot], I noticed a truck parked to my right.  It was Steven’s. . . He sat slumped on his tailgate, looking down.  And there, all around him, were my guys.  They weren’t flipping through their Bibles.  They weren’t trying to explain away everything.  The more I watched them and the closer I got to them, I saw that they were simply sitting there with him.  Nobody was talking.  They were just there for him.”     
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               The way that we rejoice with another, mourn with another, and honor one another above ourselves is just to be present.   We do not have to have the answers, we do not have to fix anything.  Often the most powerful act of love that we can do is to be present for one another.   Much like developing a skill requires practice, being present requires taking the time to show up for one another.  We do not love by accident; it requires intentionality and an investment of time on our part.  It is only through that intentionally and investment that we can be devoted to one another in love. 
               The final category is how we relate to others.  Paul states how to do this in verse 18:  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  Even in this verse Paul acknowledges that living at peace with everyone is easier said than done. This is in part because peace is only possible if all people are willing to pursue it, which is why Paul put the disclaimer as far as it depends on you.  But even with that caveat, it is still easier said than done.   This is because there are times when other people are just plain mean to us.  They are unkind, and they do us wrong.  There are times, if we are being honest with ourselves, we do not want to live at peace with everyone because we would rather start something and pick a fight.   It is for those times that Paul wrote this morning’s scripture where we are encouraged to bless those who persecute us, not repay evil for evil, and to overcome evil with good. 

 In the face of other people being terrible, the most powerful thing we can do is be good.  When others go low, we go high.   The way that we can witness to the goodness of God in the world is through how we respond to the evil of others.   The way we overcome evil is not by getting even, it is by loving care.  I remember seeing this illustrated from a non-Christian source years ago.   In 2017 Ohio Chapel United Methodist Church outside of Columbus, IN was severely vandalized.  On Sunday they could not use the building because it was taped off and still a crime scene under investigation, so they had their worship service outside.  Right as the service was getting ready to start a floral delivery truck drove up and dropped off flowers expressing sympathy.  This token of love was not from the church down the street or even another United Methodist church.  The flowers were sent by the Columbus Islamic Association.  In this particular case it was Muslims who actually took the most Christ like act.  They responded to an evil in their community with an act of goodness and loving care.  This token of love helped with the healing of a hurt and grieving congregation. 

This morning’s scripture gives us a lot of nuts and bolts fundamentals on how to live as a Christian.  The reality is even when we try to live it out, we will not always get it right.  There will still be times when our zeal wavers, when we fail to practice hospitality, or we prefer to hang on to the idea of getting even.   We will not get it right all the time, and there will be times when our honest attempts do not quite pan out.   But we should do it anyway.  English author and Christian apologist GK Chesterton once wrote, “If it is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”   We will not get it perfect out of the gate, but if it is worth doing then we should still do it even if our best is not that great.  Because this is the only way we get better.  Practice makes progress, and living out our faith, living like Jesus is always worth doing.   So may we put our faith into practice, and may we practice our faith, as we strive to live a life of sincere love that overcomes all with good. 
 

Scripture:  Matthew 15:10-20

               June 6th, 1944, is a day that is forever cemented in history.  Even if history is not really your thing, there is a decent chance that the date at least sounds familiar because it was D-Day, the day of the allied invasion of Europe.   To this day, this remains the largest seaborne invasion in history.  The invasion utilized over 7,000 ships and put 156,000 allied soldiers on the beaches of France.   The D-Day invasion was a strategic and logistical achievement, but a lesser known and perhaps greater achievement was Operation Fortitude which made the landings possible.  Operation Fortitude was the massive undertaking that convinced German High Command that the invasion was not going to happen at Normandy.  This was done by creating fake armies.   The allies created a fake paper trail of non-existent divisions of soldiers, they sent out radio transmissions from bases that did not really exist, they attacked enemy radar stations nowhere near the actual invasion site, and they actually created fake landing craft which generals spent time touring and inspecting.  

               Operation Fortitude required mass coordination among multiple entities and absolute secrecy.  Amazingly it worked.   German high command communication indicates that on the eve of the invasion, they knew at attack was imminent, but they believed the main invasion was a diversion so that German forces did not end up concentrating in Normandy.   Operation Fortitude worked because it created the outward appearance of an army, when there was not anything actually behind it.  This morning’s scripture reveals that sometimes people attempt to do this with faith.   A lot of energy is put into creating the outward appearance of righteousness, but much like the fake armies created by Operation Fortitude there is a little real faith at the center.   We get the impression from this morning’s scripture that this type of performative religion that is all about outward appearances is something that Jesus has little patience for.   This morning’s scripture is a reminder that faith is not about our outward actions, it is about a changed heart at the center of our being. 

This morning’s scripture picks up in the middle of a story.  This morning, we kind of jumped to the really good part.   Jesus was traveling around the Sea of Galilee teaching in the various villages.   His reputation must have been spreading because Matthew 15:1 records that some Pharisees and teachers of the law had come up all the way from Jerusalem.   I think we have to read between the lines a little bit here to really capture what is going on.  We started at verse 10 which states Jesus addressed the crowd.  This implies that Jesus was surrounded by a crowd of people that he was teaching, and it is in this very public venue the Pharisees and teachers of the law interrupt to ask Jesus a question, which we find it 15:2, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?  They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

In our modern-day context with all that we know about germs that honestly comes across as a reasonable issue to address, but that is not quite what the Pharisees and teachers of the law were talking about.  The clue here is the phrase the “tradition of the elders”.   The Pharisees and the teachers of the law took following the law, the conduct for living found in the first five books of the bible, really seriously.  They took it so seriously that starting after the Jewish people returned from exile, they began meticulously creating extra rules around the rules found in the bible just to ensure that they would not be broken.  It is these extra rules that they refer to as the “tradition of the elders.”  The Old Testament law does some rules about food that can be unclean as well as other occurrences that can make someone ceremonially unclean.   It seems to be that this hand washing the Pharisees are trying to call the disciples out on, is some sort of ritualistic washing of the hands that was undertaken to ensure that someone did not accidently make themselves unclean because they had some sort of incidental contact with something ceremonially unclean throughout the day.  

So that is the issue that the Pharisees are addressing, they are upset that Jesus’ disciples are not following the tradition of the elders, the extra rules they made up for ensuring purity.  Remember, this is not a private conversation over coffee between Jesus and a couple of Pharisees.  There is a crowd.  This is a public argument.  The Pharisees were not asking the question in good faith.  They were asking the question to discredit Jesus.  They were trying to pull a quick “gotcha” to discredit Jesus by showing his disciples were not really that righteous.  In verses 3-9 of chapter 15, Jesus points out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees because they are being incredible literal on tradition while interpreting the actual scripture, the law they are supposedly protecting, in a far less strict way.  That culminates with the start of this morning’s scripture reading in verse 10, where Jesus addressed the crowd and specifically answers the Pharisees question with the profound wisdom “what goes in someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” 

In verse 12 the scripture seems to jump ahead a few hours, because now Jesus is alone with the disciples, and apparently the Pharisees left in a huff, upset at what Jesus had said.  I imagine what happens next, caused Jesus to make a big sigh.  Because he was in the place that just about every teacher has found themselves where they have taught something, and the teacher thought it was easy to understand.  The initial reaction of the students seems to imply they got it, but then one well-meaning student asks a question that makes it clear, that nope the lesson really did not connect. That is what Peter does here, by asking Jesus to explain the parable.  While Jesus is exasperated, he does anyway and makes the point he had hoped the disciples would get very explicit.  What makes someone unclean is not on the outside, it is on the inside.  It is not a person’s hands that need to be cleaned, it is a person’s heart.  In other words, it does not matter how it looks on the outside, it is what is in their center that matters. 

            When his disciples did not immediately get this, Jesus did ask them “are you still so dull?”  I have to wonder how many times over the centuries Jesus has shaken his head and had the same thoughts about his followers.  From generation to generation of Christians this is still a scripture that we get tripped up on.  We still get so drawn to the outside appearances of righteousness.  Just like the Pharisees of Jesus day, we like coming up with and emphasizing little rules about how followers of Jesus should dress or act.  We like to create molds of what a righteous person looks like and then expect everyone to fit that mold.   Just like the Pharisees these molds tend to emphasize outward, observable behavior and ignore what is really at the person’s center. 

We see this same pattern repeatedly today.   In 2022 journalist Brandon Flannery published the results of research he conducted as to why people have walked away from Christianity.   One of the very top reasons was the behavior of Christians.  These people who stepped away from Christianity because they observed outward behavior that did not match the harsher language and attitudes of the people they worshipped with. 

 One of the examples that the research pointed to was the online behavior of Christians. I know not all of you spend a lot of time online, but one of the cardinal rules of being on the internet is don’t read the comments because usually the comments are on a big news article, popular video, or viral post are generally hateful, toxic, and awful.  Unfortunately, people who identify as Christians make more than their fair share of toxic and hurtful comments.  It is often not a surprise to find the most offensive hateful comments have been left by someone who is quoting bible verses in their profile.    It seems that when given the anonymity that comes from being hidden behind a screen a lot of people who profess following Jesus let the evil thoughts of their heart come out in absolutely vitriolic and hurtful comments or posts.  In our modern era this bad behavior is pushing people away from Jesus. 

Unfortunately, this sort of behavior is not new.  We can go back several decades and find people making the same observation about a disconnect between the outward appearance of Christians compared to what seems to come out from within them.  Author and Hosier Sheldon Vanauken wrote about this in a letter to C.S. Lewis when Vanauken was contemplating with converting to Christianity.  Vanauken wrote: “the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians — when they are somber and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths.”

We can go back even further to find this has been a pattern repeated time and time again.  It is a pattern we see in our collective history.  John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement learned this firsthand.  Early in his adult life Wesley was committed to spiritual disciplines.  His daily practices of prayer, scripture reading, and fasting would be even the most pious of us to shame.  He had a lot to say at that time about the importance of these disciplines, but much like the Pharisees of Jesus day it was all about the outward focus.  It was about the actions that were done and not about internal motivation.   When John Wesley fully accepted his need for grace and the salvation that Jesus offered, he described it as his heart being strangely warmed.  His faith went from being focused on his outward actions to an internal transformation in the center of his being that was brought about by amazing grace. 

 A heart changed by grace is the most fundamental basis of our United Methodist expression.  It is our historic perspective that religion is not just about the actions we take to honor God, it is a religion of the heart.   Being a Christian is fundamentally being transformed from the inside out to being a more loving person.   This emphasis on a transformation in the center of our being is clearly evident in John Wesley’s 1742 pamphlet “The Character of a Methodist”.  He begins that work with: “A Methodist is one who loves the Lord his God with all his heart.”  Wesley continues on that “[a Methodist’s] heart is lifted up to God at all times in all places.”  And he also wrote, “[A Methodist] is pure in heart.  Love has purified his heart from envy, malice, wrath, and every unkind temper.”

A Methodist is one who’s heart has been changed by grace. We are to be a people who do not have evil thoughts coming from our heart, because our heart- the center of who we are- has been made clean by the love of God, the grace of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit.  As we consider how we live out the character of a Methodist in our modern world, let us reconsider those internet comments.   Chances are most of us here are not the ones making the rude or mean off-handed comments.   Chances are most of us are not saying anything at all.  We think being silent is being polite and nice, but we should do better than that.  We should be kind.  If the actions of some have Christians a bad rap for being unkind in their words and behavior, then may our words and behavior be the counterbalance.   May we be quick to comment in ways that build up and not tear down.  May our words convey grace, love, acceptance, empathy, and a desire to care for others.  We as a single church cannot change the perception of our entire culture, but we can ensure that when people interact with us they do not encounter more bad behavior from believers, but instead may they know we are Christians by our love. 

In this morning’s scripture Jesus reserves his harshest criticism for the religious leaders because faith is not about doing the right things, it is about having a changed heart in the center of our being.  May we all be less concerned with how righteous we appear on the outside and may we be obsessed with what is going on within us.   May we pursue making Jesus our center, may the beat of our heart, may the essence of our life to be as Christlike as possible.  May we constantly keep pursing Jesus, and may we seek to have the character that John Wesley believed is possible for us.  May we love God, in all times and places with all of our heart, and by the power of Christ may what we all have in the center of our being be a truly pure heart.  

Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33

               Perhaps it is because we need water to live, but people as a whole love to be close to, on, or in the water.  Often one of the reasons why so many people look forward to summer is because it is a chance to get back on the river, visit the lake, jump into a pool, or lay on a beach next to the ocean.  Water is something most people seem to love, but it is also something we should be respectful of because water can be dangerous.  This is one of the reasons why we build boats after all.  Boats allow us to venture into deeper water safely, and several years ago I learned the value of staying in the boat.

 It was the final day of a youth mission trip.   We spent the week in the Appalachian region of Kentucky helping with roofing houses and building accessibility ramps. Before we left to come home though, the plan was to spend the morning and early afternoon white water rafting on a local river.  When we got to the rafting place, the owner/operator pulled me aside and explained the situation.   The stretch of river we were on normally had class 2 to 3 rapids.   However, the water was way up and the rapids were class 3s to one strong class 4.  For reference, the scale ends at six, and class four is considered advanced with a high risk if you fall into the water.  He asked me if we still wanted to proceed.   I had a group of teens and adventurous adults who had waited all week for this moment, so of course I said yes.   After we got through the first strong class three rapid with two boats flipped over, I began to wonder if this was a mistake.
  Then, about halfway through the trip, the raft I was in was navigating around a rock.   I went to paddle while a bump pushed the boat up.   I was expecting to meet the resistance of the water, instead the paddle hit nothing, and I was off the balance so that the next bump put me straight into the water.   Luckily, we had to wear helmets because mine had a newly made scratch in it as I was pushed over a rock.   Fortunately, the guide of the raft was very skilled, and he managed to pull the thing around and pull me out of the water very quickly.   I had a life vest on and there were plenty of people who knew what they were doing so I was never in huge danger.  Yet, that unexpected plunge gave me a new appreciation for the power and potential danger of water. 

  I tell this story because my experience in some small way helps me appreciate what Peter might have been experiencing in this morning’s scripture, because water can be scary.  This story is often taught to Peter’s detriment.  One of the common takeaways from this story that Peter only began to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus. The tendency is to focus on what Peter did wrong, and how he messed it up.  However, what we take away from this morning’s scripture should not be about what Peter did wrong, it should be about what he did right because he shows us that faith is one small step after another. 

I think this morning’s scripture is one where it benefits us to read it in a way where we try to really step into the story, and we try to understand things form the disciples’ point of view, because by the time Jesus comes strolling up walking on water, they had already had a bit of a whirlwind of a day.  The gospels of Mark, Matthew, and John all record these events but emphasize different details.  The morning started with Jesus telling the disciples that they needed to get away for a bit and they set off to a more isolated place around the lake, and as buzz about Jesus spread around the villages and towns that dotted the lakeshore, they discovered a crowd waiting for them.  This incident led to one of Jesus’ other well-known miracles, the feeding of the five thousand where five loaves and two fish manage to feed everyone.  At this point the sun was probably getting low in the sky, and the disciples had already had a long day. 

               However, their day was not done.  The gospel of John records that after Jesus performed the miracle of fishes and loaves the crowd got a little rowdy and wanted to make Jesus a king.   This morning’s scripture starts with “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead.”   In the Greek the word translated “made” has the connotation of “to compel”.  We get the sense that Jesus saw where this thing was going and so he wrapped it up before it got out of hand.   So the disciples were in the boat, out in the lake, crossing over to the other side but it was not going well.  The wind was against them, so they were putting in a lot of effort to go nowhere fast.   The scripture specifies that Jesus came walking on water during the “fourth watch” which would be between 3 am- and 6 am.

Even though the Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake, the attitude in that boat was probably a little salty. The disciples had been struggling in the boat with uncooperative weather for at least six hours and likely several more than that.   This was on top of an already long and somewhat emotional day.  The disciples would have been tired, they would have been cold, and they would have been wetter than they wanted to be.  It was likely a boat full of twelve grumpy men.   This is the scene when Jesus appeared walking on water and scared the disciples.   This is the mindset that Peter would have been in when Jesus said, “come.”

               Again, I do not think we give Peter enough credit here.  Remember, there were eleven other followers of Jesus in that boat, but only Peter took a step out of the boat.  He did that despite having a long day, despite being tired, and despite not being his best.  I imagine that the first step out of the boat was a hesitant, small step, but we have to acknowledge just how big of a step it was Peter. 

It is worth remembering Peter was a fisherman.  He had grown up on the lake.  He had seen his share of rough storm, and he may even have known someone who suffered a mishap on the water.  He would have known and appreciated the danger the water posed.  He would have known how much safer the boat was, but despite that he took one small step out into the water anyway, because Jesus had told him, “Come.” 

               Even though Peter was worn out and common sense was telling him to stay in the boat, he still attempted to step closer to Jesus, and I think there is a lesson there for us.   We may not find ourselves in a boat looking out at Jesus walking on water, but we will often find ourselves in a situation where we are tired, where we are grumpy, and where we would rather stay right where we are.  It is often in those times in our lives where, if we are listening, we can Jesus saying “come.”  Just like Peter, we can be invited by our Lord and Savior to take a step into the unknown, to be more like him, and to do the impossible.  However, unlike Peter we may not be as willing to take that one small step.  

               At the point Jesus showed up Peter and the rest of the disciples had been going through a rough few hours after an exhausting day.  In the same, we all have exhausting days.  Sometimes we have several of them in a row.  We can find ourselves worn out by the daily expectations and stresses of life.  We can find ourselves worn down by the seemingly endless supply of something else that needs to be done.  We can get to the point where we just feel so tired in the depths of our soul all the time.   During those times it becomes easy to ignore the voice of Jesus telling us to “come.” 

 We tend to tell ourselves that we will do the thing that is on our hearts, we will take the step in faith, we will be more serious about following Jesus, when things calm down.  Friends, I know most of you have lived enough life to know that is not how life works.   Yes, whatever our current struggle is might pass, whatever our current major worry is might be resolved, but that does not mean things are going to calm down.  It seems that something else, some other struggle, some other unexpected event, will come along.   Life can be beautiful and joyful, but it is also unpredictable and more chaotic than we want.   If we decide that we are going to wait until the seas are calm, the wind isn’t blowing, and there isn’t a cloud in the sky before we take a step out then we are never, ever getting out of the boat.  If we truly want to follow Jesus then at some point, we have to walk where Jesus is walking, we have to move with purpose when Jesus says come, and we have to get out of the boat-even if we are tired, even if we are grumpy, and even if the conditions are less than ideal.

This is what Peter does in this morning’s scripture, and he does the impossible.  He does what Jesus is doing, Peter walks on water.   At least to start.  He does eventually sink and we get a glimpse to why he sinks in verse 31: “Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.  ‘You of little faith, he said, ‘Why did you doubt?” My immediate question to this verse is what did peter doubt?   More than once I have asked this question in a youth group or in a young person Sunday school class, and inevitably the immediate response is “Jesus”.  That is not a surprise because often the takeaway of this story is Peter took his eyes of Jesus, and that is why he began to sink.  However, I am not convinced that Jesus is the right answer to the question what did Peter doubt.  Peter was not doubting Jesus.  As soon as he started to sink, he cries out Lord save me!    Peter had full confidence and faith in Jesus.    Who Peter doubted was himself.  The wind and the waves were a reminder that he was doing something that he never thought possible, and that led him to doubt that he was truly capable of what he was already doing.   Peter doubted that he could be like Jesus.  He doubted that he could do what Jesus was doing, that is why he began to sink. 

What sticks out to me is even though Peter doubted he could be like Jesus, Jesus did not.  Jesus told Peter to come because he knew that Peter could do it.   He knew that Peter could do what he was doing.  In the same way, Jesus knows we can do it too.  Whatever we are called to do, we can do.   So that passion to change the world, the way that you just know you could make a real difference, the step of faith that you have been holding yourself back from taking- why do you doubt?   Because our savior does not.   God does not call us to something as a test.   We do not take holy risks because it is sink or swim, because Jesus already knows that we can walk.   We can be like him, through Christ who strengthens us we can do all things, and through him we can transform this world.

Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, “faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the staircase.”   Living out our faith is taking one small step after another.   It is taking one small step, even when we are tired, even when we are busy, and even when we are not sure we can do it.   We might doubt that we can do what Jesus did and making a real difference, but our savior does not doubt us.  Jesus says come, so may we go.   May we get out of the boat.  May we get our feet wet, and make we take one small step, and then another, because in doing so is how we will make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. 
 
 

Scripture:  Romans 8:1-11

Almost fifty-seven years ago on July 20th, we accomplished the seemingly impossible.   It was on this date in 1969 that Neil Armstrong took one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind by setting foot on the moon.  The whole Apollo project was an absolute engineering marvel.  The navigation required to travel across the vast distance of space to reach the moon required the help of a computer, and the astronauts had one on board that weighed 70 pounds.   By today’s standards the Apollo Guidance Computer is startingly limited.  The Apollo Guidance Computer went into space with 36kilobytes of memory.   To put that in perspective, the average smartphone today has 8gigabytes which is a little under 8 million times more memory than the lunar lander had.  The processor on Apollo 11 ran at 0.043 MHz, where the processing power of an iPhone is 2490 MHz, which is about 100,000 times the processing power.  The reality is that a smart toaster today has more raw processing ability than the computer that took astronauts to the moon.   The way that computers have evolved is truly amazing.   It is remarkable that most of us have little computer in our pocket that is more powerful than a desktop personal computer from less than twenty years ago.  That says nothing about where the cutting-edge of computer technology is at.   Today the world’s fastest super computers in the world can run around 200,000 trillion calculations per second, which is a number that is honestly beyond comprehension.  

               Despite having such remarkable raw processing speed, even the highest end super computers in the world cannot yet match the best computer we know: the human brain.  Computers can run mathematical computations faster than we ever could but even though we cannot process as fast what we are able to do with data is beyond the scope of computers.   For instance, there are simple pattern recognition tests that young children can compete without difficulty that a supercomputer will struggle with.   Super computers cannot solve the answers to even simple riddles unless the answer happens to be in their database.  They are unable to process the creative thought it takes to come up with a solution.  Even though there has been a lot of development in recent years attempts at artificial intelligence, AI, still struggles to actually show any intelligence.   A data center, no matter how large, still does not get close to the actual potential of just one person.  Despite the amazing progress in computers made over the last several decades it still cannot match what is already inside of us.  I think there is a lesson there, and I think it is the same one that this scripture is getting at.  Sometimes the power we are looking for is already within us.   

               As we continue looking at scripture from Romans, it is worth repeating that the book of Romans is one that can be a little more difficult than others.  In Romans Paul is systematically and methodically making a few different big arguments and linking them all together.  This makes Romans a great candidate for a deep dive Bible study, but it also makes it hard to pick out just a couple of verses because it is all connected.  This morning’s scripture is no different.   You might have noticed it began with therefore, meaning it connects back to the scripture that came before it.  In fact, this morning’s scripture is the conclusion of a greater thought that began back in Romans 5.  Starting in the fifth chapter of Romans Paul begins making his case for grace.  Paul argues how the mighty acts of Jesus on the cross reconcile us to God and Paul works through the relationship between grace, the Old Testament law, and sin.   This morning’s scripture is the conclusion of the thought.   Paul’s verdict is found in verse one of this morning’s scripture: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Paul offers up evidence to back up this bold claim, and the evidence he gives is the Holy Spirit.  The conclusion to Paul’s greater point on grace is that it is the Spirit that allows us to fully live into amazing grace in our lives.  

               As we consider this scripture we find that much like computer science is chasing what is already in us, much of what we desire in life is already in those who have found new life in Christ.  We go through life often harboring deep emotional and spiritual yearnings.  Often we struggle to articulate what it is we are even looking for, but we have a deep-seated angst because we know we still haven’t found what we are looking for.  One of the assertions we can extrapolate from this morning’s scripture is that these desires of the human soul are fully met through grace.   This grace flows from the never-ending love of God, was made available to us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and is tangibly felt in our lives through the workings of the Holy Spirit.   This scripture claims that in Christ, we have found what we are looking for, that Jesus is the remedy for that which ails us, that Jesus fulfills the greatest desires of hearts and souls.   It is through the Spirit that we find these longings fulfilled.  In this morning’s scripture we find three of the great longings of the human heart addressed and we find that it is through the Spirit we feel these longings being met. 

               Many of you know this better than I do: getting old hurts. Often, it’s not the years, it’s the mileage.   As we use our bodies that repeated wear and tear adds up, and before we know it the simple act of getting out of bed hurts a lot more than we really think it should.   This happens to our bodies, but it also happens in our souls.   We fall short of what we know is right, we act in pride, we lash out in anger.   We say the words we wish we could take back, and we regret the things we should never have done.   Guilt is to our souls like pain is to our bodies.   It adds up, it hurts, and it holds us back. One of the great longings of the human heart is to be free of pain.   While the Holy Spirit does not remove the pain we feel in our backs in the morning, it does remove the pain of guilt.   There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.   As this morning’s scripture says Jesus already paid the price.   The eternal stain of all of guilt and all of our regrets has been erased.  For those who are in Christ Jesus, our ledger in the book of life is free and clear.  If we are in Christ, then God is not going to hold our feet over the coals or beat us up for our sins, so why do we keep doing it to ourselves?  

               This does not mean we get a blank check to gratify all our sinful desires, but rather it means we have been set free.  The burden of guilt and shame no longer holds us down.  We are no longer tethered by the eternal consequences of our sins and as this morning’s scripture states we are now free to stop living according to the flesh, but we are free to live according to the Spirit.     

               Living according to the Spirit is how we meet another of the great longings of our hearts.   Life feels chaotic, and that is especially true today.  I imagine most of you are like me and are desperate to stop living in “unprecedented times.”   When I make the mistake of doom scrolling news articles it really can feel like the chaos of this world is out of control.   When I feel that way, I remind myself of the truth that “It’s always something.”  We could go back thirty years, or fifty years, or eighty, or hundred, or two hundred and it would feel much the same.   The circumstances would of course be different, but we would still sense and feel the chaos.   This is because one of the great longings of humanity is a sense of peace.  This morning’s scripture plainly states, “but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace.”

  A mind governed by the Spirit is one that seeks to love God with all of our being, love our neighbor as ourselves, and follow God’s will in all our actions.  A mind governed by the Spirit is one that focuses on God’s heavenly kingdom and not the chaos of the all the earthly ones.   When we allow grace to be our rock and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to be our sure footing, then it does not matter what the world does around us, because our hope is built on nothing less that Jesus blood and righteousness.    Living with a mind governed by the Spirit will not stop all that is going on right now, because it’s always something.   The storm will rage around us, but on Christ the solid rock we will stand.   No matter what happens when we are steadied on such a firm foundation, then we will be a beacon of life and peace in a turbulent and chaotic world. 

               There is one more deep longing of the human heart that the Spirit of God meets.   I think children instinctively get this longing, because life has not worn it out of them yet.  When you ask a young child what they want to do in life, they do not say they want to be a shift manager, or an accountant, or a lawyer.   They do not name good paying jobs.  Unlike adults, kids have not forgotten how to dream big.   Kids want to be princesses; they want to be knights that slay literal dragons.  They want to be superheroes or astronauts that explore strange new worlds.   Kids dream big, they want to go places, and they want to make a difference in the world.   Sadly, the reality of bills, clocking in/clocking out, and the grind of life mutes that desire in us when we get older.   Most days we feel like we barely have enough energy to get through the day (and that is only after we have coffee), much less have enough energy to change the world.   However, this morning’s scripture states we already have the power to change the world within us.   Verse 11 of this morning’s scripture states, “The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you.”

Much like it is hard for us to really wrap are heads around how much computers have advanced, I think it is hard for us to grasp the profoundness of this statement.   As Christians we rightfully see the resurrection of Jesus as the single most remarkable and powerful event that has ever happened and ever will happen.   The Holy Spirit that powered that miracle of miracles is the very same Spirit that all followers of Jesus are indwelled with.    Brothers and sisters in Christ, if we truly believed that, if we truly lived that then just like Jesus said we would be able to move mountains.  

               Most of our smart phones are 100,000 times more powerful than the computer that sent astronauts to the moon and we mostly use them to argue with strangers on Facebook and look at cat videos.   The supercomputers in pockets are capable of so much more than we use them for, and the Spirit is the same way.   The power to transform this world, the power that brought life out of death, is already in us.  We can look at needs that need to be met, we can see people lost, we can see injustice happening and say wouldn’t it be nice if we could do something.  But friends, we can.   The power is already within.   If we submit to God’s law, if we live with a mind governed by the Spirit, then through us God can do miracles.  

               There are deep longings in every human heart, and I fully submit to you the truth of this morning’s scripture is that Jesus has met our every longing.    The greatest desires of our soul have already been met.   May we look within and find what we have always been looking for. May we know there is no condemnation for those in Christ, may we be centered upon the rock of Christ to find peace, and may we claim the holy power to transform the world.   May we seek to live according to the Spirit and may we have a mind governed by the Spirit.  May we be able to live and life abundantly a true life because his Spirit lives within us.  

Scripture:  Romans 7:14-25

               The American Revolution often conjures up images of large troop formations marching and firing in lines at each other.   We often associate famous battles with the conflict, like the one at Bunker Hill or the Siege of Yorktown that won the war.  The war was fought for more than six years and during that time there were hundreds of engagements both on land and at sea.   Most of these happened on a much smaller scale.  A good example of this is the skirmish that occurred on November 14th, 1782, at Avant’s Ferry in South Carolina.   There a division of American militia under the command Captain William Capers clashed with their opposition.  This too place in an isolated rural area with little strategic significance and it is likely that a hundred or less men were involved in the fighting.  The only reason why the battle is even known is because of a couple of lines from an obscure 19th century biography.      

The battle of Avant’s Ferry is a fun tidbit for people who like forgotten history, but the most notable aspect of the fight is just who the American militia fought.   Captain Capers’ militia division did not face off against British regulars.  They fought loyalist militia.  At the battle of Avant’s Ferry American patriots fighting for independence clashed with American colonists fighting to defend the honor of the crown.   Today we celebrate American independence each year and we by and large believe this was the right action in the course of history.  It is easy for us to forget that in the late 1700’s American Independence was not so widely celebrated.  Historians estimate that at least 20% of colonial Americans were loyalists and opposed the concept of revolution.     The American Revolution was in fact revolutionary.  It is consistent that in human history any struggle for liberation, equal rights, and freedom has been met with opposition.  This is because an expansion of freedom and liberty will always bring about significant change, and change tends to always garner opposition.   Human history has shown this to be the case, but this morning’s scripture also speaks to this truth.   As this morning’s scripture points out, we find opposition to change on a personal level.  Following Jesus as Lord and Savior, seeking the guidance of the Spirit, and walking humbly with God the Father should create profound change in our life.   This scripture makes it clear that even though we seek and choose this change we paradoxically oppose it.  This scripture makes the case that living a life of faith is a spiritual struggle for true freedom. 

This morning’s scripture picks up in the middle of a highly technical argument that Paul is making.  This happens a lot when looking at scripture from the book of Romans.  Romans was written using a philosophical style where it continually builds on itself. One of the major points that Paul is seeking to make in Romans is that the grace of Jesus does not completely make the Old Testament law given to the Israelites worthless.  Before this morning’s reading Paul addresses this by stating the value of the Old Testament law is that it makes plain what is sinful.   Paul declares in Romans 7:12 “So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.”  In this morning’s scripture Paul tries to explain why, even though the law clearly spells out what sin is, why then he (and by extension his audience) continue to sin.  

               In making this argument Paul introduces an idea that at face value can seem somewhat problematic.   In verse 17 Paul wrote, “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.”   This idea of being indwelt with sin is only really found right here in the bible, and it is problematic because it creates an easy excuse to fall into.   It gives us an excuse for our poor decisions and bad behavior.   Much like claiming the devil made me do it, claiming the sin living in me made me do it, seeks to release us from accountability.   This morning’s scripture is not seeking to give us a ready excuse to get out of our sinful actions.  Rather it is naming the reality we face.  When we seek to make a positive change, when we seek to follow what is holy and good, when we seek to revolt against evil in our own actions then even though we want to do good, evil is right there with us. 

               This evil, this sinful nature, is not necessarily an external force influencing us.  Instead, it is a trap of our own creation.   You have likely heard the phrase of being stuck in a rut, and metaphorically that is what happens with us and our sin.   A rut is caused by wagon wheels in the dirt.   As heavy wagons travel across the land they leave an impression.  Over time these impressions become deeper and deeper and turn into proper ruts.   This repetition of repeating the same action is powerful.  For instance, outside of Guernsey, Wyoming there are still ruts from the famed Oregon Trail.  These ruts will last for centuries as hundreds of wagons crossing a bluff carved the ruts into the limestone.  Being stuck in a rut does not mean we are trapped and cannot move.  On the contrary.  Being stuck in a rut means we keep going the same way because since our wheels are in a rut it is easier to keep going where the ruts lead.   In the same way, before we yield areas of our life to Christ and seek that which is holy righteous and good we carve ruts in our lives through our sinful actions.  The more we engage in selfish, prideful, or unkind behavior the easier it gets to continue doing that.    Ongoing sinful behavior digs deep ruts into our hearts and souls.  

This can lead a lot of us to really feel Paul’s words in verse 15.  “I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do, I do not do but what I hate I do.”   We can be so stuck in the rut of our sin that it almost feels predictable.  We can feel so trapped by a prison of our own creation that it does feel as if there is this entire part of us that is out of our control. Given this it is no wonder that Paul wrote in verse 24 of this morning’s scripture, “What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”   The good news is that there is an answer to that question. 

   The good news is that God has already done the work to bring about true freedom.   In the struggle against sin, Jesus has already won the victory.  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  That proves God loves for us, and it is what enable us to make the change.  The power of God that loves us enough to save us is powerful enough to free us from the ruts of sin.   It is what enables us to go from doing what we do not want to do, to doing what God has called us to do.   For most people this often is not as simple as flipping a switch.   For most of us it is a process and it can still feel like a struggle, but thanks to Jesus Christ it is a struggle that we can find victory in.   I appreciate how Christian rock band Tenth Avenue North put it in their song The Struggle released several years ago.  The band sang, “Hallelujah!  We are free to struggle, we are not struggling to be free.”  As we consider this morning’s scripture, there are two critical steps we can take in our own struggle. 

  First, we must be willing to admit that we are sinners.  We tend trying to sugar coat sin.  We try to make downplay what it really is.  We might call sin a mistake, a bad choice, an indiscretion.   We need to be clear about this, often sin is willful disobedience against God.   Sin is often a purposeful decision to do what we know is not right.    As uncomfortable as it is, we must claim that we are sinners.  We have to claim that we have been wrecked by the Fall, and like Paul describes in verse 21 we have to admit that although we want to do good, evil is right there beside me.   It is our kneejerk reaction to rationalize our own actions, we tend to be good with coming up with justifications why our actions are the exceptions.  However, to get out of the rut, we need to be honest enough with ourselves to declare what the sinful problems of our hearts are, and we need to be willing to declare that Jesus is the answer.   

One of the things I really appreciate about 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous is the insistence that those who participate never stop being alcoholics.  An AA member could be sober for decades, but they still understand themselves as an alcoholic.   In the same way, even though followers of Jesus are redeemed, even though our sins have been separated from us as far as the East is from the West, we should understand ourselves as still being sinners.   No matter how righteously we live, no matter how often we get it right, we should still understand ourselves as people in need of grace and in need of a savior. 

Being willing to admit that we are sinners is important so that we can fulfill the second step, which is we must be willing to confess our sins and repent.   If we are not willing to name how we have turned away from God, then we are unable to seek reconciliation.   In order to seek forgiveness for our sins, we must be willing to confess them.    We must be willing to tell God what we have done wrong, ask for forgiveness, and then repent.   Repent means to turn away from, to leave behind, to “go and sin no more.”   One of the hard lessons to learn in our faith is that repentance, true repentance, is a process.   I wish it wasn’t.   I wish it was as simple as saying a prayer, making a firm decision, and then never falling into a certain temptation again.   To turn away from our sinful nature and delight in God’s law is a change, and remember we naturally resist change.  

  The reality is, that even if we truly desire to live like Jesus, even if it is our goal to live a life where we love God with our whole being, love our neighbor as ourselves, and willfully do not sin then there will be times when we still miss the mark.   Instead of following the path of Christ to new life, we will fall back into the same old ruts we are used to.   What makes grace so amazing is each time we fall, then God will still be there.  Each time, God will forgive again, and each time through the grace of Christ we will step back on the road to repentance.  When faced with this sinful nature, we are not helpless.  The same struggles that plagued us then might plague us still, but not all of them.  All of us have who are in Christ probably have sinful behaviors and sinful desires, which we have truly repented from.  That we have turned our back on and never gone back to.    It might have taken awhile, but by the grace of God we did it.   This is a reason to have great hope, because with God all things possible, and we can have hope because we know repentance is possible.  We can celebrate because in our life and faith there have been victories in Jesus.  There are sinful attitudes and desires we have been freed from, and we have experience in some measure true freedom in Christ. 

As followers of Jesus, we celebrate that we are free to struggle, and we are not struggling to be free.  We celebrate that our Lord and savior Jesus Christ has already made freedom possible.  So, may we continue to fight the good fight.   If you feel like you are losing the battle within you and you feel like you keep doing what you do not want to do, then may you claim the truth of this morning’s scripture, that the power of God is greater than the power of sin.  May we all confess that we are great sinners but Jesus is a greater savior.   May we all be willing to confess our sins and may we seek repentance. May we be willing to fully trust in Jesus, who has proven himself over and over.   May God grant us the grace to trust him more as we claim the full freedom he offers each of us. 
 
 
 
 
 

Scripture:  Matthew 10:40-42

               The Sistine chapel at the Vatican is largely considered one of the most impressive works of art that humanity has ever created.   Renaissance artist Michaelangelo spent years on his back creating the vast mural on the chapel ceiling.   It is also well known that he hated that commission, so it was surprising that he returned years later to paint a large fresco on the chapel’s wall entitled the last judgement.  This ambitious project features over 300 figures and a lot of detail.   One of the details that went mostly overlooked until it was finally noticed in 1925 is that Michaelangelo inserted himself into the painting.  The reason why it took so long to notice is because he did it in a sneaky way.  One of the characters depicted is the disciple Barthalomew.  Tradition remembers as part of his martyrdom he was flayed, and in the painting, he is somewhat gruesomely holding his flayed skin, and the face depicted on it is none other than Michaelangelo’s. 

               Art historians have come to a consensus on this fact.  This is the only artist self-insertion of Michaelangelo that there is consensus on, but it is by far not the only artist self-insertion from the Renaissance.   There are lots of examples of well-known artists inserting themselves into their artwork, sometimes in sneaky ways and sometimes in blatant ways.  When it comes to classical painting, an artist’s self-inserting is not uncommon.   There was an article written by theologian Erna Kim Hackett in 2020 that really made the rounds back then, which pointed out that most American Christians do the same thing when we read the bible. 

It was Hackett’s assertion that when we read the bible, we tend to project ourselves in the role of the hero.  We tend to insert ourselves in the story and identify with the characters that put us at the center and the focus.  So, for instance we easily see how we are like Peter and ignore how we are like Judas.  We identify with Jesus and never cast ourselves as the Pharisees.  I think she accurately puts forth that out tendency with scripture is to center ourselves and insert ourselves into the middle of it all.  When we do this, we can miss a lot of what the bible can teach, and we can overlook the multitude of ways that the scripture can stretch and grow our faith. 

I think this morning’s scripture gives a good example of this.  Because in this morning’s scripture Jesus is addressing his disciples, which we are more likely to identify with. Instead of inserting ourselves into the role of the disciples who are being welcomed I think we have more to learn and more to gain in our faith development when we do not see ourselves as the star, but instead we see ourselves as those that are doing the welcoming.   In doing so we can be confronted with how we sometimes fall short in welcoming others, and we can discover how hospitality is a necessary skill and vehicle for deeper faith development.

This morning’s scripture comes from the end of a lengthy discourse in the gospel of Matthew.   It comes from the instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples as he sent them out to do ministry and proclaim the good news.   In this morning’s scripture Jesus essentially mentions anyone who welcomes the disciples will be blessed.  Because by welcoming the disciples they will by extension be welcoming Jesus and thus God.   However, if we attempt to put ourselves in the shoes of those who were going to be doing the welcoming, we can see that it was quite the big ask. 

We need to understand what the scripture means by “welcome” because our 21st century American idea is worlds different from the 1st century concept.  Today we see welcoming as saying hello, smiling, and if we are really trying to be hospitable offering coffee.   In the first century though hospitality was more ritualized and it was much more encompassing.  To welcome someone was to ensure their safety and to care for their needs.  The host doing the welcoming was expected to put themselves out and put their guest first.   There was a level of commitment and risk involved with welcoming someone in the culture of Jesus.   There were three major hurdles that would have really made it hard for the people the disciples were sent to that needed to be overcome to properly welcome the disciples who were sent.   

First, the disciples were outsiders.   They were being sent to small villages far and wide.   These villages were isolated and self-contained.  These were places where everyone knew everyone, so anyone who showed up unsolicited and uninvited would have stuck out and raised flags immediately. The disciples were not a distant relation of someone in town, they were not traveling merchants who had built up trust, and they were not the representative of some official with power and clout.   Showing hospitality to the disciples would have been a real risk, a shot in the dark, and a step in faith.   It would have required personal sacrifice with no guarantee of a return, just because it felt like the right thing to do. 

Worst though, and the second hurdle is that the disciples were not just outsiders.  They were radical outsiders.  We live in a culture that has been shaped by centuries of Christian influence, but in the time of Jesus his message was radical and out there.   The disciples would have come with the teachings of Jesus, and as we can see throughout the gospels the teaching of Jesus regularly pushed hard against the religious traditions of the day.   There are very few cows that are more sacred than religious tradition and the disciples would have been challenging than that.  So not only were the disciples’ outsiders, but they were upstarts who were questioning how things have always been done.   Anyone who showed them hospitality would have been stepping out of line with their community.   

The final hurdle is that Jesus sent the disciples out with nothing.  At the beginning of this section where Jesus is giving the disciples instructions to be sent out he states is Matthew 10:9, “Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts-no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff.”  The disciples would have absolutely imposed on their host, because they had no choice.   By design, Jesus sent them out to rely on others.  Those who showed hospitality to the disciples and welcomed were doing more than giving them a place to lay their head, they were volunteering to completely provide for them.   This was, no doubt, an experience in faith and trust for the disciples, but it also had to be an experience of sacrifice and generosity for those who showed hospitality.   All these hurdles would have made it exceptionally easy for people in the villages to look the other way, to make excuses for why this was not their responsibility.

               This morning scripture lifts up and celebrates the people who, despite these hurdles, welcomed in the people that God sent.   Now it is unlikely that we will ever find ourselves in the exact situation that those who welcomed the disciples found themselves in.  However, I think we still find ourselves tasked with welcoming the people that God has sent.  As a congregation, I believe it is one of our hopes that God sends people to us, right? One of the things that we want is for our outreach attempts to be successful and for God to nudge someone into walking into this space for the first or perhaps the first time in a long time.   This morning’s scripture lifts up the importance of showing not just hospitality, but radical hospitality to the people that God has sent.   While our modern-day context is different, this morning’s scripture should lead us to pause and ask in our context, how do we do that? 

               Perhaps one of the ways to answer that question is to start with how we do not do it, because I know a story of a church that believed they were welcoming, but not as much as they probably thought.  This was a smaller sized church, and the congregation was mostly delighted when a younger family with a small toddler started showing up.   However, there were some issues.   This family had a habit of bringing coffee and snacks for the child into the sanctuary.   This led to a couple of trustees unilaterally deciding to passively aggressively put up signs that had in all capital letters NO FOOD IN SANCTUARY.   Either because they did not see it or chose to ignore it, this young couple kept coming and kept providing snacks for their kid.   This kid was a typical toddler boy and was perhaps a bit more rambunctious than this congregation was used to.  For weeks these issues persisted, and discussing the issues with this family rose to being an agenda item at a church council meeting.  Some people aired their grievances, and one person- who thought he was offering a welcoming solution- got in the final word: “They just have not gotten used to the way things are done around here.  Once they do, then they will be like the rest of us.” 

               To state it clearly, expecting people to conform to your expectations is not actually a welcoming position.   Texas based pastor Zach Lambert put it like this when he once wrote, “There are two kinds of ‘everyone is welcome churches: 1.  Everyone is welcome to conform to the church’s image of what a Christian looks like.  2.  Everyone is welcome to fully embody the unique image God created them to be.  Run away from the first and run towards the second.”   

In 2001, United Methodist Communications, put out a new marketing slogan, what they called a brand promise, for the United Methodist Church.   It was arguably the most successful branding the United Methodist Church has ever done, and even though this branding has not been active for years it is still easy to find it on banners on the side of church buildings.  The brand promise of the United Methodist Church was “Open hearts, open minds, open doors.”  It was a denominational commitment to be a true “everyone is welcome” church.  It was an aspirational promise that the people called Methodists will do their best to welcome all.  Even though branding and marketing language has moved away from the slogan, perhaps it is still a promise we should strive to live up to.  When we welcome those who God has sent, then we are still welcoming Jesus, and the one who sent him.     To have truly open doors we need to be fully welcoming as this morning’s scripture points out to us.  

We need to be willing to welcome everyone that God sends our way, without exception.  This includes those who think differently, live differently, or just don’t do things the way we do things.   Again, most churches say that everyone is welcome to come through the door, but our attitudes, actions, and words need to back that up.   To truly be welcoming as a community of faith, then we need to do the work of hospitality on an individual level.   This means we consider evaluating our own stances.  We ask ourselves questions like do my action, do my words, do my social media posts communicate that I truly welcome every person or are there people that I treat as outsiders?  We need to truly ask ourselves; do I believe that the doors are open to all, as they are, without reservation.

Our job is not to set benchmarks for how people are supposed to look or believe. We are not supposed to be gatekeepers who enforce “our way of doing things.”   Our job is to show hospitality, our job is to be welcoming, our job is to love.   If we are truly to be a church of open doors, we love everyone.  Period.  Full stop.   The Holy Spirit’s job is to change hearts and mold people to be more Christ like.   If someone needs to change, let’s trust God to do that work.   Our job is to be welcoming and fully inclusive so that we create an environment where truly anyone can experience the love of God. 

I believe this morning’s scripture has a message for us, not necessarily as the ones being sent but as the ones who are to be welcoming and show hospitality.  May we be aware of the people that God send our way.  May they find us to be a welcoming oasis in a cruel world.  May we welcome those who God send our way because in doing so we welcome Jesus into our midst as well as the one who sent him.  May we be the kind of church that people run towards and not away from.  May we truly have open hearts, open minds, and open doors.  

Scripture:  Matthew 10:24-39

In the late 1990s, show business insiders largely considered the game show format to be dead.  Sure, there was still Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy but those venerable classics with established audiences were the only bright spots in the genre.   That all changed in 1999 when ABC premiered a new game show hosted by popular daytime talk show host Regis Philban.  Who Wants to be a Millionaire is credited for single handily reviving the gameshow genre, and while it is now where near as popular today, the game show is still going.  One of the reasons for the show’s success is it had a strong “I could do this feeling” because the contestants had a series of lifelines.   This meant that even if they did not know the answer themselves, they could rely on a lifeline to pull them through. 

The most dependable lifeline was poll the audience.  In the history of the show Who Wants to be a Millionaire the majority of the audience picks the right answer 91% of the time.  That is crazy to think about.  Presumably the average audience member is roughly of equal intelligence to the contestant.  Each individual person is just as likely to know the answer as the contestant who is struggling, so why then as a group does the audience get it right so often?   This is a well-known social science phenomenon called group intelligence.  It was popularized and shown to be a real thing by a well-known experiment in 1987 involving jellybeans.  Students were asked to guess how many jellybeans were in a container, and everyone was wrong.  Most people were wildly wrong.  However, the average of all the guesses was only 2.5% off the right answer.

  This experiment has been replicated many times with similar results.   In general, we tend to trust crowd wisdom.   Most people instinctively know where the majority falls and tend to fall in line as not to be an outlier.  This morning’s scripture thought is a bold and honestly uncomfortable challenge to that way of thinking.  This morning’s scripture points out that following Jesus will sometimes make us an outlier.  To faithfully follow Christ means we will sometimes go against the flow of the culture around us, and even though it probably makes us uncomfortable being a disciple of Jesus means we will sometimes rock the boat. 

This morning’s scripture can be a difficult one for us, because parts of it feel a lot different than the types of sayings from Jesus we usually emphasize.  It comes from the middle of a major teaching discourse in the gospel of Matthew.  Jesus is commissioning his twelve disciples to be sent out on his behalf, and he is telling them what they can expect to encounter.  What he tells them is not good news.   He tells them they will be insulted, they will be threatened, they will be hurt, and they will experience discord.   What is worse, is that the Jesus tells his disciples that this is not just theoretical, but it is something that they will experience personally and close to home as following Jesus will set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother.”    Jesus tells his disciples that following him will cause conflict in their life because it will make them an outlier.  It will put them at odds with the culture around us.  Despite that Jesus urges his disciples to follow in his footsteps boldly.  Three times in this morning’s scripture Jesus declares “do not be afraid.”   Jesus told his disciples to make bold proclamations in the light of day and to proclaim truth from the rooftops.  He dramatically and passionately urges his disciples to follow him, even when it rocks the boat.

Throughout the course of Christian history, this is exactly what faithful disciples did.  In the early centuries of Christianity, disciples of Jesus stood for their faith under persecution that was sometimes intense and led to death.   Generations later when corruption had begun to seep into the church, faithful reformers sought to return God’s people to holiness and passionate faith.  They did this despite immense political pressure and in some rare instances burning at the stake.   Still later, it was faithful Christians who took on many of the social ills in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.   It was faithful Christians who went against the grain to abolish slavery as a moral imperative.  It was faithful Christians in the United States who willfully broke the law to help slaves escape and move to safety along the Underground Railroad.  It was faithful Christians who sought to educate poor children as a way of freeing them from a life of poverty, and it was these same Christians who campaigned tirelessly to protect the rights of children and create child labor laws.   It was faithful Christians who were at the forefront of the civil rights movement.    In these instances, the faithful Christians rocked the boat for the sake of the gospel.  They picked up their cross and followed Jesus.

One of the uncomfortable truths that this scripture causes us to face is that when Jesus said “Do not be afraid of them” he was referring to the Pharisees, the respected religious leaders of the day.  Unfortunately, whenever one group of followers of Jesus strived to follow Jesus boldly, there has always been another group of religious people who opposed them. While some Christians were working to abolish the evil practice of slavery, others were twisting scriptures to explain why slavery and white dominance was the God-ordained way of things.   While some Christians were seeking to end poverty through education and compassion on children, others were chiding and belittling their efforts by criticizing that God only helps those who help themselves.   Today, while there are Christians advocating for the inclusion of all people and the fair treatment of all, there are others writing books with the absurd premise of calling empathy a sin.  By nature, most of us are conflict adverse, but this scripture states, and the history of faith illustrates, that when we seek to follow Jesus faithfully there will likely be opposition.

Almost from the beginning the saving grace of Jesus Christ has challenged the status quo.   It has gone against group wisdom.  It has caused faithful followers to seek to reform the way things are, and a lot of times these changes were real fights.     This does lead us to an important question.  When it comes to living out our faith, how do we know the group wisdom is wrong?  How do we know when we should rock the boat? How do we know that the action we wish to take is God-inspired and spirit led?  By looking at this scripture and considering some of the failings of group wisdom we can find ourselves on solid ground. 

Following Jesus will often lead us to take steps in faith that stretch us and that is an area that group wisdom is not the best at.  Further research on group intelligence or group wisdom has found that it somewhat limited.   Group intelligence is excellent at getting trivia answers correct, but it is significantly worse at innovation.  For instance, one study had a group of people pick between four food options.  One was plain chicken and rice.  The others were much more exotic and creative featuring flavors like garlic, jalapeno, and ginger.  The majority picked plain chicken and rice.  However, the people were also asked to rank the dishes, and chicken and rice was the least favorite.  Despite being the least liked option, it was the most picked because group wisdom tends to move to the safest choice.  Group wisdom tends to be averse to change and it will resist anything that challenges the way things currently are. Group wisdom often bends towards maintaining and defending the status quo.    The status quo tends to make sure those that have security, have privilege, and have power keep it while not caring about the experience of those on the margins.  The status quo of this world is that it is broken and fallen in sin, the Kingdom of God is not the status quo.

 Jesus most certainly challenged the status quo during his time on earth.  He had compassion on those considered undesirable.  He loved those who were considered unloveable, and he forgave those who were considered unforgiveable.  When Jesus did this the religious leaders of his day, tried to exert pressure on him and Jesus pushed back.  Jesus opposed them and opposed the status quo so that the good news of redemption, reconciliation, and acceptance by God could be experienced by all.  If challenging the status quo means more people have the opportunity to say yes to Jesus, then it is always worth rocking the boat. 

In this morning scripture Jesus states, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”  To acknowledge Jesus, we have to acknowledge all of his message, all of his life, and all of his teachings-not just the bits we like.  This means we acknowledge Jesus by showing compassion for the marginalized.  It means we listen to, empathize with, and have compassion for people whose life experience is different than our own.  It means we seek to include those who have been made to feel excluded.    When we stand by the type of people Jesus stood by and we oppose the type of people that Jesus opposed, then we will find ourselves pushing against the status quo.   We will find opposition, just like Jesus said we would in this scripture.  

Given that, what is our next step?   What should we do?   If seeking to follow the example of Jesus makes us a cultural outlier, if it puts us as one against the group wisdom, then we should do it anyway.  Not only should we do it, but we should do it with boldness, because Jesus himself said “do not be afraid of them.”   In verse 25 Jesus encourages the students to be like the teacher or the servants like the master.  He encourages us to be like him.  If we truly take that seriously, then we will do world transforming things that will make tangible and eternal difference in the lives of others.   We will be doing something significant.   I am reminded of a quote from Canadian pastor Carey Niewhof.   He once wrote, “The best way to incite zero opposition is to do nothing significant.”  Whenever we put our faith into action, we will be doing something significant and that will always bring opposition.  The message though of this scripture is clear, do it anyway.  

A good example of what this looks like can be found in Methodist history.  In 1938 Lea Joyner was ordained in the Methodist Protestant Church.   However, in 1939 the Methodist protestant church re-united with the Methodist Episcopal church and the Methodist Episcopal church South, and one of the compromises of this merger is that the reunited Methodist Episcopal Church would not ordain women. Because she was already ordained Lea Joyner was granted full connection as ordained clergy, but she was not appointed. For more than a decade she asked and petitions for the opportunity to serve  She was told flat out by her superintendent that no church will have you, and the best the conference would be able to do is offer her a vacant lot outside of Monroe, Louisiana if she wanted to try and start her own church.   Despite a clear calling to be a preacher she met opposition because she was a woman, but Lea Joyner preached anyway. 

She took the offer of the vacant lot, preached the good news of Jesus Christ, and in two months that lot had a congregation with 120 members.  She was the pastor of that church for 33 years until her death.  At that time in the 1980s it had over 2,000 members and it was the largest church in the world to be pastored by a woman.  Thankfully, the Methodist Episcopal Church finally followed the Spirit’s leading and challenged the status quo of the time by changing course and recognizing the full ordination of women in 1956, 70 years ago.  However, for more than a century before then there were women who challenged the church’s stance on the prohibition of women preachers and did it anyway. 
When we encounter someone else who is seeking to bring the impossible into the world, when we encounter someone who is seeking to join God in transforming the world, when we encounter someone who is seeking to follow the example of their master and teacher Jesus Christ may we not be among the opposition.   May we seek to encourage them.   May we go a step further though, may we acknowledge before others our Lord Jesus by loving the people that he loved and serving the kinds of people he served.  May we not be afraid to take risks, even if that means taking up our cross.  May we follow Jesus with such a reckless abandon that it can only be described as faith.   May we may not be afraid, even if following Jesus leads us to challenge the status quo.  Without fear may we seek to faithfully follow Jesus and acknowledge him before others.  Even when it feels like we are going to rock the boat we do it anyway because this is how we will make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  

Scripture:  Matthew 9:35-10:8

  Twice in my life I have had the opportunity to participate in a mission trip that left the United States.  While I hope both trips managed to do some small amount of lasting good, and while both experiences were personally meaningful, both times I was honestly a little unprepared and in over my head.  Nothing illustrates this better than one of the experiences I had when I went on a Spring break mission trip to Mexico while I was in college.  One of the days we were serving in a homeless encampment on the Mexico side of the border.   Hundreds of people lived in an open field in whatever shelter they could cobble together.   At one point I found myself entertaining a large group of children, a task that my woefully small Spanish vocabulary did not really equip me for.  Eventually I was able to organize a game where I used one of the few Spanish phrases I did know, which was to ask Do you like, and then I filled in the blank with other words I knew.  If a kid answered yes they would then run around.   It was working great, but then a little girl said something to me, and I had no idea what she was saying.   I thought I heard the word “agua” which I knew meant water, so I tried to say, “Yes, I also like water”, though I do not think I got it right. 

   This girl then runs off and a few minutes later she comes back with a small cup of water and hands it to me.  In all the preparation for this trip one of the things most emphasized was “do not drink the water.”  Yet this was an encampment, it was not like they had running water.  This girl was offering me a limited resource, and I now understood that I had essentially answered that, yes I would like water. It would have been rude to refuse it at that point, so I drank the water.   Perhaps it was God protecting me from my own foolishness, but I did not suffer any ill-effect afterwards.  

 Perhaps, college kids who can not speak Spanish were not the most effective choices to serve on mission in Mexico.  Yet, when I read this morning’s scripture, I realize that I was only a little less prepared than the disciples were when Jesus sent them out.   In this morning’s scripture we get a good look at the approach that Jesus took and preferred to sharing the good news.   As we consider this morning’s scripture, we can learn this approach and find that it is still remarkably applicable today.  

 In this morning’s scripture we can see four components that make up the approach that Jesus used.   The first component is in verse 36: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”   There are some biblical commentators who consider this verse to be the thesis statement of the gospels.  Throughout his ministry Jesus performed miracles, he healed the sick, he restored sight to the blind, and he cast out demons.    This morning’s scripture points to one of the primary reasons why Jesus did all these things.    One of the primary motivations for all the healings and for all of the other miracles of Christ up to, and including, the resurrection was a compassion for people.   Jesus saw people suffering and he wanted to ease that suffering; he saw people in need of help and wanted to help.  Jesus was not motivated by getting his name out there, by attracting more followers, or building a platform.  Jesus was not motivated by clout, fame, celebrity, or a sense of importance.  Jesus was motivated by compassion.

 As his followers today, we also should be similarly motivated.  I know that every church in the world, including this one, wants to grow.  Just about every church in the United States at least, wants younger people, so that the church’s future can be ensured for another generation.   But when it comes to what we do as individuals and collectively as a congregation, our motivation must be more than growth.   We should care about more than dollars in plates and butts in pews.   Jesus was not motivated by growth for the sake of growth, and he did not count success by comparing increases in year over year metrics. 

Like Jesus, compassion should also be our motivation.  Because there are people all around us that are looking for reasons to hope.  There are people who feel broken looking for help in picking up the pieces.  There are people who are tired and worn looking for safety and rest.  There are people desperate to be known that they are loved just as they are.   These are real needs that in the world, and these are needs that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ can meet.   Friends, as the body of Christ these are needs that we can help meet, but our motivation cannot be because we hope to see these people become members and giving units.   What motivated Jesus was when he saw the crowds he had compassion for them, and if we are going to follow Jesus our motivation should also start with a deep compassion for others. 

Making sure that our motivations line up with what motivated Jesus is important, because if we are going to follow Jesus, then this scripture points out that doing so is not a passive activity.   This is one of the more remarkable aspects of this morning’s scripture.  Jesus entrusts his disciples to do the same work that he is doing.  What Jesus does in this scripture would have been highly unusual in his time.  Jesus followed the model of a traveling rabbi.  The way the rabbi-disciple model normally work is that the disciple followed the rabbi and learned everything from the teacher, so that they could essentially be an exact copy of a teacher.  After years of meticulous learning, only the best of the best disciples would be entrusted by a rabbi to go out and teach in the rabbi’s name.   This was not the approach Jesus took. 

Jesus ministry on earth was roughly three years, and Jesus sent out the twelve in the second year.  Which means at most some of the twelve would have been following Jesus for about a year, but since they were not all recruited at the same time some had only been with Jesus for a few months.   It seems Jesus did not want his disciples to have a perfect academic knowledge of his teachings, but rather he wanted them to have hands on experience putting them into practice.  The twelve men that Jesus entrusted in this scripture were not necessarily the students with the highest grades, and with a tax collector in their ranks they all did not have reputations of being righteous, upstanding people.  Yet Jesus entrusted them and empowered them to do the work.  This is the second component to the approach that Jesus used for sharing the good news.   Jesus does not call the equipped, he equips the called.  Jesus equipped the disciples with the authority they needed to accomplish the task he was sending them to do.  In the same way, the called are still equipped today.  When our desire to follow Jesus leads us to seeking the meet the needs of others, then we can confidence that the disciples of Christ will still be equipped for the task at hand. 

Being motivated by compassion, Jesus equips his disciples and then sends them out.   This is the third component to approach Jesus uses to share the good news.  It is worth noting that Jesus did not send his disciples out with instructions to invite others to come back and see Jesus.   Jesus sent his disciples out to embody the good news.   He specifically sent them to their local context.  They were Jewish men and so Jesus sent them to people who are most like them, to the people that they can most understand and connect with, and Jesus sent them to meet needs in this local context in the same ways that Jesus was already doing. 
 
I believe that being willing to invite people to come to church with us is important.  There is real, life changing value to being connected with a faith community.  However, Jesus does not equip the called just to invite in, the approach that Jesus uses to share the good news is sending his disciples out into their context to share the good news.   In this morning’s scripture Jesus states why his approach requires sending out his disciples.  In verse 37 Jesus states, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into his harvest field.” 

In this morning’s scripture Jesus used a farming metaphor.  He used the image of a harvest to describe meeting needs, having compassion for people, and sharing hope that redemption is possible.  To continue the farming metaphor, I wonder if one of the reasons why the workers are still too few is because too many Christians treat their church buildings like the wrong kind of farm building.  Too often church buildings are treated like granaries.  A granary is a building built for one purpose.  It exists to hold grain.  When the grain is harvested it put in the granary and it sits there until it is time for it to move on.  A granary keeps the harvested grain safe and comfortable inside the walls.   Too many churches act like granaries, as comfortable holding areas for those who already know Jesus.  A granary church is not worried about what happens outside the granary.  As long as there is still room (and no one sits in someone else’s pew), a granary church has no problem with more people coming in, but they will do nothing to get them there because they are already safe and secure inside the granary.  

 Instead of granaries we need more churches to be like barns.   A barn still holds things, but only temporarily.   The barn keeps the tractors and the other farming tools safe, until it is time for them to be sent out for the harvest.   It is in the barn that equipping takes place, it is in the barn that regular maintenance is kept up, but nothing is meant to stay in the barn.  The barn is staging area for the harvest.  It is the building that workers leave to go out into the fields.   The barn is a working building and by its very nature is focused on the work that takes place outside its walls.  A barn church is one where the workers gather, are cared for, properly equipped, and then sent out into the fields to do the work. 
 
Our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  We will never do that, if we are like a granary that waits for other people to come in.  We must be a barn.  We must seek to show love by serving people outside our doors. When we do this, not only are we following the method of Jesus, but the healthiest and most vibrant churches are the ones that seek to serve others and be the best neighbors.  This was highlighted in the Growing Young research about congregations that are effectively reaching younger generations.  In their book the researchers wrote, “Churches that become the best neighbors . . . focus on doing good both in their neighborhood and around the world.  While most leaders might guess this is important, we can’t stay strongly enough how vital it is for churches to engages in service, acts of compassion, missions, and social justice.”  If we want to join Jesus out in the fields and make a difference for the kingdom then being the church cannot just happen on Sunday mornings between 9:00-and 10:00 AM.   Being the church, being the disciples of Jesus Christ that love and transform the world needs to happen outside our doors in the community around us, as we the see the needs and meet the needs. 

  In this morning’s scripture Jesus instructs his disciples to “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the harvest field.”  We should pray that prayer because again there are people who need Jesus.   However, if we pray that prayer, we should not be surprised if we find we are the answer to our own prayer.  We might find God handing us the tools we need to gather the harvest.   May we be willing to do that.  As our own time and abilities allow, may we join in the work.  Like Jesus, may we have compassion for other people.  May we seek to meet their needs, may we seek to serve them, and may we seek to provide for them.   Just as we have freely received the love of God and the grace of Jesus, may we freely share that with others.  May we not just be a church that gathers and sits around, but may we be a sending church, a church equipped by Jesus himself to transform this world and bring in the sheaves.  

Scripture:  Matthew 9:9-13

Jimmy Stewart is one of the best-known actors from Hollywood’s golden age.  He had long and influential career that spanned decades and throughout his life he racked up 92 credits to his name.   With that many acting credits, it is inevitable that he would have a few films that did not perform well.   Stewart served in WWII, and his biggest flop turned out to be his first role after the war.   The film got a very mixed critical reception; it lost $525,000 which translates to over five million dollars today.  It’s failure was the beginning of the end for the production studio which closed a few years later. The failure of this film set off the low point in Stewart’s career that took a few years to recover from.  This underperforming movie that caused all of this is a sentimental story called It’s a Wonderful Life.

Today, It’s a Wonderful Life has found new life.   The movie was not held in high esteem for decades, and this led to an oversight where the copyright was not renewed and the movie fell into the public domain.   Local TV affiliates all over the country began broadcasting the movie on Christmas because it cost them so little compared to other programing.  This caused the movie to re-enter the public consciousness in the 70’s-80’s.   By the 1990’s the movie had cemented itself as a Christmas classic, and in 2007 when the American Film Institute released their list of the 100 greatest movies of all time, it’s a Wonderful Life was ranked #20.   The movie completely failed to connect with the post-war audience, and only decades later when it was given a second chance did “It’s a Wonderful Life” become regarded as a cinematic masterpiece. 

The eventual success of It’s a wonderful life has some similarities with the story of Matthew.   Originally, It’s a Wonderful Life failed to connect with audiences, and it was written off as an overly sentimental flop and only decades later was the beauty of the movie rediscovered.   In the same way, Matthew was written off by the religious leaders as an irredeemable sinner, but Jesus discovered a disciple.    To Jesus, Matthew and all his friends were worth a second look, they were worth not giving up on.   This morning’s scripture should challenge us to ask what people do we need to reconsider and not give up on?

This may be a somewhat familiar story to you, because it is one that shows up in three of the four gospels.  All three of the gospels tell a similar story of Jesus calling a tax collector to follow him, a party where Jesus eats with sinners, and grumbling pharisees.  In all three accounts it ends with Jesus telling the pharisees it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick.   Of the three accounts of the story, perhaps the one that we should pay the most attention to is this morning’s scripture reading.   This morning’s scripture after all, is Matthew’s account of his calling to follow Jesus.   There are a couple of details present in this morning’s scripture that are not in the other accounts that are worth paying attention to.  

 One of the aspects that stands out, especially when compared to Mark’s account, is just where in the story of Jesus’ ministry the calling of Matthew happens.  We do not have a story in the gospels of how Jesus called all of his twelve closest disciples, but Matthew was not one of the first and was likely closer to one of the last.  In the gospel of Matthew Jesus had already called his first disciples, he had already begun teaching in synagogues, he had already preached the sermon on the mount, he had calmed the storm, cast out demons, and healed the sick.   He did all of this in a fairly small region around the northern part of the Galilean lake.  This is worth keeping in mind, because it means that the calling of Matthew did not happen in isolation.   When Jesus approached Matthew and said “follow me” this was not necessarily a meeting between two strangers.   Matthew was a local tax collector in an area that was not exactly a major metropolis.   The odds are really, really high that even if they had not a conversation before that Matthew would have known about Jesus.  He would have heard the stories.  In Matthew 4:25 it mentions large crowds gathered around Jesus before he preached the sermon on the mount.  Even if Matthew was not part of the crowd, he almost certainly would have heard secondhand accounts of what Jesus said and the miracles Jesus performed. 

 In Matthew 4:17, Matthew wrote that at the main message that Jesus began to preach was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  I have to wonder what Matthew’s reaction was to hearing this message.  I have to wonder how the stories of Jesus resonated with him.  I have to wonder just how much Matthew felt the pull of Jesus’ words to repent against the gravity of living his current life.   I realize this is conjecture, it is me trying to read between the lines, but I think that Matthew must have wrestled with Jesus’ message of “repent”, because when Jesus finally looked Matthew eye to eye and said “follow me” that is exactly what he did.  All it took was the last little nudge of a personal invitation to bring him back to God and lead him into a transformed life. 

Matthew and Jesus did not exist in separate little vacuums until they happened to cross paths in this morning’s scripture.  They came from similar backgrounds, they lived in the same area, and they almost certainly knew some of the same people. Despite that it took a personal invitation for Matthew to repent and believe the good news.   We can learn from this because sometimes a personal invitation is still all that it takes. 
 
Recent studies from 2024 reveal that 2/3rds of people in Indiana do not attend religious services regularly.   This does not happen in a vacuum; it is not like all of these people are distant and anonymous to us.   Chances are many of you know people in your lives who fall into this category, and all of us interact with people who have the same backgrounds, live in this same community, and know the same people as us that fall into this category.    

Also, just like Matthew, there are people not engaged with the faith we have found hope in but are open to it.  For years, studies have found that a majority of people who not actively engaged in faith are open to responding to an invitation from a friend, family member, or neighbor to attend church with them.   I have every confidence that there are people in our community who are looking for the healing, the acceptance, the forgiveness, the second chance that only God can provide.   At this very moment there are people  sitting at home drinking their coffee or out walking their dog, who are just a single invitation away from a life transformed by grace.  This morning’s scripture demonstrates this truth, and as followers of Jesus we should follow the example that Jesus set.  As followers of Jesus the question is not “are we going to invite someone to church”, because that should be a given.  The question is “Who are you going to invite to church?”

The second detail from this morning’s scripture that is worth paying attention to is Jesus’ response to the pharisees.   The pharisees are upset with Jesus because he is eating with sinners.  In their viewpoint to be righteous requires distancing one’s self from the unrighteous. In their viewpoint, Jesus was defiling himself by eating with sinners.  By breaking bread with them, he was transferring their uncleanness to himself.  From the pharisee viewpoint the best way to maintain one’s purity and righteousness was to not associate with those who were never going to reach the standard.  Matthew and his friends clearly fit within the standard of sinner that the pharisees thought should be avoided. 

In all three gospels where this story appears Jesus has a similar response.  In all three he states, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick” and “I have not come to call the righteous but the sinners.”   However, in Matthew’s account, Jesus says an extra sentence.   Here he tells the pharisees “go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”   As the pharisees likely would have known, this is a direct quote from the prophet Hosea.  In Hosea the point is that what God wants of God’s people is not going through the actions to meet the requirements of devotion, but what God seeks is for God’s people not just to follow the letter of God’s law, but to live out the heart of God’s law that establishes how to live in right relationship with God and with each other.   It is a way that values mercy over judgement and love over following the rules.  

 Just like it is the sick who must urgently need a doctor, Jesus came to save those who are most in need of saving.   In order for Jesus to do that, he had to spend time with and build relationships with the people who need him the most-which are the very people that the pharisees tried to avoid.   In order to reach these people Jesus led with mercy, and Jesus led with love.   As followers of Jesus, it is still our desire, in fact it is our mission, to see more people become disciples of Christ.  However, like Jesus she would also lead with mercy and love.  As United Methodist Pastor Michael Beck wrote in A Field Guide to Methodist Fresh Expression: “Any missional strategy that does not begin with an agenda-free love for others is questionable.”  

Jesus ate with sinners because he cared for them and he loved them. This action led him into direct conflict with the religious leaders of his day, and this is a pattern that seems to consistently get repeated.   At the invitation of his friend George Whitfield, John Wesley came to a gathering where he preached outside as opposed in a proper chapel or church gathering.  Wesley initially resisted this idea, but on April 2nd, 1739, he wrote in his journal, “at four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation.”    John Wesley took the good news out of the sanctuary, which he initially considered to be improper and even a little vulgar.   He did not believe it was an appropriate venue for the Word of God, but he did it anyway because he believed people hearing the message of salvation was more important than his sensibilities.  

 Perhaps today, we need to submit to being more vile.  Churches are really good at saying that everyone is welcome, and then we open the doors and hope people show up.  Perhaps, like Jesus who ate with sinners, perhaps like John Wesley who gave up his pulpit to preach on the streets, we should go where people are.  Instead of just seeking to insulate ourselves with people who are like us and believe like us, we should seek out the people on the margins, the people who have felt left out, the people who have been hurt and we should love them; without an agenda.  We should lead with mercy and draw all own personal circles a little wider, so that we are more willing to love and care for all people. 

  Famed movie director Stephen Spielberg lists “It’s a Wonderful Life” as his #1 favorite movie.   About the movie he wrote the film, “shows that every human being on earth matters-and that is a very powerful message.”  It could be said that is the same message as this morning’s scripture.    Jesus intentionally sought and loved the people were excluded by the religious leaders of his day.   Jesus did this because he led with mercy, and to God every human being on earth matters.  All of us are worthy of love and Jesus came to save all.   May we follow the example of our savior.   May we be willing to personally invite others, the way that Jesus invited Matthew.   May we be willing to lead with mercy.  Just like Jesus ate with the sinners of his day, may we be willing to engage with and to love the people who feel excluded today.   May we be the supportive person in the life of someone who needs someone in their corner.   May we be willing to leave our comfortable building, submit to be more vile, and share the life changing love of Christ with everyone.  

Scripture:  Psalm 8

               In sixth grade science class I had to give a report on a scientific field.   The teacher provided a list of different scientific disciplines.  Each field could only be reported once, and he drew names at random for people to select what they wanted.  My first choice was astronomy, because I wanted to do a report on space.  However, that topic went early.  When it was my turn, knowing that I had wanted to focus on space, the teacher directed me towards cosmology.  Astronomy is the study of stars, but cosmology is the study of the universe.   It is a discipline that seeks to discover how the universe works.   As I began to do the research I began to discover just how expansive the field was.   Feeling overwhelmed, my parents helped me make an outline to cover what I thought were the basics of cosmology, and I then worked fervently to fill in all the information I was finding to complete my report. 

               The assignment was to create a poster and then present a report that lasted at least five minutes.  This report had a reputation of being a big deal because for a sixth grader talking in front of others for that much time can be a daunting task.  I did not have that problem, because my report on cosmology ended up lasting 40 minutes.  The teacher was in his last year before retirement, and I remember him saying that in all his years a student making that long of a presentation was a first for him.  I was not sure how I could have made it any shorter.  I was talking about the universe after all; it’s a really big topic.  

               We can begin to get a sense of just how big it is, just by looking up at the night sky.  Have you ever had the opportunity to see the stars?  I mean, really see the stars, away from light pollution and on a clear night.  In those conditions the night sky is vast and awe-inspiring.  This is how the sky would have looked when David looked up centuries ago from Jerusalem or the Judeah countryside.  It would have been this pristine unfiltered view of the universe that inspired David when he wrote this morning’s scripture.  Psalm 8 expresses both the enormity of God’s nature and the amazing love that God displays for people.   When David looked up at the night sky he was struck by the enormity of it.   Since that time, we have learned that the universe is far bigger than David ever could have conceived, and given the size of the cosmos, it really does make the love of God even more remarkable. 

               When we consider the scope and scale of all that God has created, it is no wonder that the Psalm begins with LORD, our lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  The size of the universe is staggering.   For instance, the closest object to our planet is the moon and it is 238,900 miles from earth.  Think of the car that you drove the longest.  How many miles did you put on it: 110,000, 175,000, 200,000?   Most of us have not put enough miles on a car to make it to the moon.    The moon is just our satellite, and we are the third planet in a solar system orbiting a star.    The size of our solar system is vast to reach interstellar space requires traveling 15 billion miles from the sun.   We are in one solar system of many that make up the milky way galaxy.   Our galaxy contains between 100 billion and 400 billion stars.  Many of these stars have a solar system of their own, the size of the galaxy is hard to wrap our minds around, but our galaxy is not the only one.   Astronomers have observed and cataloged over 1 million galaxies.   The mathematical models suggest that there are over 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.   Each one of these galaxies has billions of stars.  When all of this is added together, as famed cosmologist Carl Sagan put it, there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand.  

               The universe is bigger than we truly can comprehend.  The size and scale of it go beyond our ability to really grasp and engage with.  What is even more incredible is that God, the very God that we gather to worship today, is the creator of the universe.  Not just our little world, but the whole universe.   There are billions of galaxies that we never seen, yet God created each of those galaxies.  God hand made the billions of billions of stars in the and placed them exactly where God wanted them to be in the heavens.  

               To consider the vastness of the universe means we also must consider the vastness of God.   It is hard to look at the night sky with its thousands of stars and not feel incredibly tiny.   Perhaps, this is what David was thinking when he wrote in this morning’s scripture:  What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”  

               While this morning’s scripture may put it more poetically, this is a question that all of people wrestle with in some capacity.   At some point or another we wrestle with the existential questions.   Sometimes we ask these questions in general terms, but other times we ponder these questions in more personal terms like, “Why am I here?”  “What is purpose to all of this?”  “How do we know we are not truly alone?”   These are the kinds of deep questions that staring into the vastness of night can bring about, and if this morning’s psalm ended with the questions of verse 4, then it would be kind of a downer scripture.  It would be a big existential question left hanging without an answer. 

               Fortunately, The point of this morning’s scripture is not one of foreboding insignificance, but it is one of wonderous awe at God.  Because David goes on to remind us that God does care about humanity, that God is mindful of us.   Despite the grandeur of God’s creation, God has crowned humanity with glory and honor.  David reminds us that God has entrusted us with the works of God’s hands, the earth.  Even if it is just a speck on the cosmic scale, God’s care for us is vast enough that God has provided us with all we need in this world that is perfectly suited for human life to be fruitful and thrive.  This Psalm reminds us that God created the universe, but God also created each and everyone of us.  This psalm reminds us that we do have meaning and purpose.  This psalm reminds us that the creator of the whole cosmos cares about us very much.  This morning’s scripture challenges us to consider the scale of the universe, the wonderous greatness of God, and expansive love that God has for us.   As we consider those big topics, there are two points this scripture helps shine light on.  

               Ever since my 6th grade report on cosmology, it has been an area that I have been interested in.   However, much of our understanding of the universe has changed significantly since the 1990s.   As scientists point telescopes into the heavens, they constantly make new discoveries.   New planets are discovered that exist at sizes and in orbits that older models said were impossible, galactic structures that push the limits of physics are observed, and the data supports answers that seemed outlandish just a few years ago.   When we consider the heavens God has created, the works of God’s fingers, the moons and the stars that God has set into place, then one of the striking aspects is the seemingly infinite diversity in infinite combinations that seems to exist on the galactic scale.  When we look to the heavens we see the full creative nature of God on display.  

               The God that has created untold wonders in the cosmos, is the same God that has created each and everyone of us.   As Ephesians 2:10 puts it, “We are God’s masterpiece.”  When we consider the vastness and wonder of all that God has made, we should remember that we are also made by God, and all the diversity and uniqueness that makes up who we are, is part of God’s design.    This is a message that the majority of us need to take to heart.   Studies show that about 85% of all people on earth have issues with self-esteem or negative self-image.   Too often, we beat ourselves up because we do not fit into a binary “this” or “that” category, we get down on ourselves because we feel we do not meet some sort of standard set by others.  For the majority of us, when we consider ourselves, we do not see God’s masterpiece.   Yet, that is what the bible says we are.   The God that made the stars made us, and friends God does not make junk.  We can look into the heavens and celebrate the infinite diversity of God’s creation, but we can also look around where we are and celebrate the same creative glory set in the heavens is in the people all around us.  This morning’s scripture reminds us of the glory of God’s creation, and it can also remind us we see part of that same wonderful creation when we look in the mirror. 

               David’s main point in this Psalm is the wonder that even though God has created so many incredible wonders, God still cares for, values, and is mindful of people.   This is the second area this scripture shines light on, because God still is mindful of humankind, God still cares for them, and more importantly, as our collective faith proclaims God loves people.       

               This is a consistent message found across scripture.  In Romans Paul wrote, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us and in 1 John 3:16 the apostle wrote, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”   Through the giving of his one and only son Jesus Christ to atone for the sins of all humanity, God has shown the lengths of love that God will go to.  This means that the God of the cosmos, loves you more than the stars that God taught how to shine.   This means that an infinite God who has created galaxies beyond number, isn’t just mindful of you, but loves you with a love that is vaster than the entire observable universe.  

 When we look at the heavens that God has created, it is easy to feel a little small.  However, when we remember that despite creating such grandeur, God still loves us as individuals, then it can make everything else in our life that feels overwhelming feel a little smaller.  Because of God’s great love, we can have a confidence that God is on our side.   We can have a peace because we know that the One who worked out how the universe works, is working on our behalf.    We can have a joy because we know that the creator of everything is willing to take time out of managing the known universe to listen to us.   We can have a blessed assurance that despite the vastness of it all, we are not alone.    We can have an unshakable confidence that goes to infinity and beyond, because we know that the God who has the power to create trillions upon trillions of stars and place them in billions of galaxies is mindful of us, cares for us, and loves us.   Friends, when we keep that perspective in mind then the problems, the heartaches, and the setbacks we go through can feel a little less severe. 

In this morning’s scripture, David asks: “What is mankind that you are mindful of the, human beings that you care for them?”   We find the answer to that question throughout the bible.   We are God’s masterpiece, created by God-but more importantly loved by God.  God proved this love through Jesus Christ.   May you know that you are created by God, may you know that you are loved by God.   May those truths take root in your life, and may they shape your perspective on how you view other people and how you face the troubles of this world.   Being in awe of the glory God has set in the heavens, may we all be able to praise and worship the God of the cosmos by proclaiming, LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  How majestic is your name in all the universe.