If It's To Be, it's Up to WHO?!?

THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 22, 2013

THE OLD TESTAMENT

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

^18.         My cheerfulness is turned to depression.  My heart is languishing.   

^19.         Behold, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a far land!

            “Is there no Lord in Zion?  Is there no king there?

                        Why do they vex me with their idols, in their stupid useless things?

^20.         The harvest is passed, the summer is done, and we are not saved!

^21.         On the shattering of the daughter of my people I am shattered!  My grief has taken me.

^22.         Is there no medicine in Gilead?  Are there no doctors there?

                        Why is the healing of the daughter of my people not arisen?

^23.         I wish my head were made of water and my eyes a fountain of tears.

              Then I could cry day and night for the sufferings of the daughter of my people.

^9:1.        I wish I had a place to stay in the wilderness, a hotel.

              Then I would desert my people and leave them alone;

                        for all of them are adulterers, a congregation of traitors.

THE PSALTER

Psalm 79:1-9

^1.          A Psalm of Asaph

            God, the nations have invaded your heritage.  They have defiled your holy temple.

                        They have turned Jerusalem into a junkpile.

^2.          They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the skies to eat,

                        the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth.

^3.          They have poured out blood like water all around Jerusalem, with no one to bury!

^4.          We have become a joke to our neighbors,

a laughingstock and an insult to those around us.

^5.             How long, Lord?  Will you be angry forever?  Will your indignation burn like fire?

^6.          Pour out your rage on the nations who do not know you,

                        and on kingdoms where they do not call on your name.

^7.          They have consumed Jacob, and laid waste his pastures.

^8.          Do not hold our first iniquities against us.  Let your mercies go before us quickly,

                        for we are terribly weakened.

^9.          Remember us, God of our salvation, according to the fame of the glory of your name.

            Deliver us and forgive our sins, for the sake of your name.

 or

Psalm 4

^1.          To the Music Director, on Strings, a Psalm of David:

^2.          When I call, answer me, God of Jacob.

            When I am in a tight place, enlarge it for me.  Be gracious and hear my prayer.

^3.          Human children, how long will you abase my glory, love useless things, and seek lies? 

Selah.

^4.          Know that the Lord’s saints are precious to him.  The Lord will hear when I cry to him.

^5.          Be angry and do not sin.  Speak in your heart in your bed and be silent. 

Selah.

^6.          Sacrifice righteous sacrifices and trust in the Lord.

^7.          There are many who will say, “Who will show us any good?”

            Turn the light of your face on us, Lord.

^8.          You have put more joy in my heart than in the time of plentiful grain and new wine.

^9.          In complete peace I will lie down and I will sleep, for you alone, Lord, keep me safe.

THE EPISTLE

I Timothy 2:1-7

            ^2.1I insist therefore first of all that there be requests, prayers, intercessions, thanksgiving for all people, ²for kings and all in authority, that we might lead quiet, peaceful lives in all godliness and sobriety.  ³This is excellent and acceptable before our Savior God, ⁴who wants everyone to be saved and to come into the knowledge of truth.  ⁵For God is one, and there is one mediator between God and humanity, the man Jesus Christ, ⁶who gave himself a sacrifice for all, the witness to his own times.  ⁷I was made a preacher and apostle for this (I tell the truth.  I do not lie) a teacher of nations in faith and truth.

THE GOSPEL

Luke 16:1-13

            ¹He said to his disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager who, he learned, was embezzling.  ²He summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you?  Hand in your ledgers.  You’re fired!’

            ³“The manager said to himself, ‘What can I do?  My boss has fired me!  I’m not healthy enough to dig ditches, and I’m too ashamed to go on welfare.  ⁴I know what I’ll do, so that somebody else will hire me!’

            ^5“He called everyone who owed his company anything, and he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my company?’

            ⁶“He said, ‘Six hundred gallons of oil.’

            “He said to him, ‘Take your contract, tear it up, and write 300.’

            ⁷“He said to the next one, ‘How much do you owe?’

            “He said, ‘Six hundred bushels of wheat.’

            He said to him, ‘Take your contract and write one for 500.’

            ⁸“His boss commended the dishonest manager for being clever.  The children of this realm are better at conducting themselves in this world than the children of the Light are.

            ⁹“I tell you, make friends for yourselves with the mammon of unrighteousness, so that, when they fail, they may receive you into their homes.

            ¹⁰“If you are honest with little, you will be honest with much.  If you are dishonest with little, you will be dishonest with much. ¹¹If you are dishonest with the mammon of unrighteousness, who will trust you with real wealth?  ¹²If you are dishonest with others’ things, who will give you your own?  ¹³You cannot serve two masters.  You will either hate the one and love the other, or hold to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.”

IF IT’S TO BE, IT’S UP TO…WHO?!?

A SERMON FOR THE 20^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 22, 2013

by William F. Thomas II

            “The children of this realm are better at conducting themselves in this world than the children of the Light are.”—today’s Gospel reading, Luke 16:8.

            “The folly of my people is that they do not know me.  They are foolish children, without understanding.  They are skillful at doing evil, but they do not know how to do good.”—last Sundays Old Testament reading, Jeremiah 4:22.

            C. S. Lewis quoted Charles Kingsley:  “Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever.”  Then he rephrased it:

The proper motto is not Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever, but Be good sweet maid, and don't forget that this involves being as clever as you can. God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than any other slackers. (Mere Christianity )

It turns out when we give ourselves to God, we give all of ourselves to God, we place at his service our bodies, and our minds.  It turns out he wants us not to check our minds at the door, but to educate them, to exercise them, to hone them, to make them the best tools for his service that we can.

            It turns out being a Christian is not like joining the Kiwanis Club.  It’s more like joining the Marines.  That’s not intense enough.  It’s more like getting married!  God has expectations, like a newlywed.  And, like a good marriage, it’s hard work, it’s expensive, it’s time-consuming, and it’s worth all it takes and more.  If you don’t put much into it, you can expect to get about that much out of it.  

            God doesn’t want infants, at least, not past the time where infancy is appropriate.  God doesn’t want sheep.  God wants friends, loved ones, family.  He wants us to grow into his likeness and his image.  Which begs the question:  WHAT IS GOD LIKE?

            Is he a wimp?

            Is he a fool?

            Is he an ignoramus?

            Is he a king?

            Is he wise?

            How much does he know?

            Is he powerful?

            Back in my seminary days, I drove out to spend some time with my family, while my wife was taking some time with hers.  There my parents and I sat around the kitchen table, drank coffee together, and talked.  We must have gone through three pots of coffee!  It was the first conversation I ever had with them, not son-to-parents, but adult-to-adult!  And it was wonderful!  We got along so well!  We had so much in common!

            To the day my daddy died, he was my go-to guy, the guy who had been there and done that, the guy who understood what I was going through.  He was never a pastor, but he had been a supervisor in cotton mills, with people under his authority and under the authority of others.  What he understood about my situation was almost telepathic!

            Forever and ever, he will always be Daddy to me.  I can never imagine allowing myself to be his equal.  But the closest we came to being equals was one of the best things in my life.  And, I think, one of the best things in his.

            What if that’s what God wants?  What if he wants us to grow to be as much like him, as God-like, as we can be?  What if the King of kings and Lord of lords has chosen us to be the kings over whom he is King, the lords over whom he is Lord?  What if he wants us to be royal, divine, autonomous, powerful, wise, decisive?

            And what if it is a constant frustration to him that so many of his children will not put out one tenth the effort on his kingdom that they do to make it in the world?  What if it drives him nuts that the evils of this world perpetuate themselves and the evil-doers celebrate their pupils in finding newer and better ways to be evil?  Could it irritate God to tears that the very gifts and graces he put in us for the betterment of others and the promotion of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Peace and Prosperity for All, get used to hurt people, the victimize people, the oppress people, the hold people down?

            How much does it hurt God that the Children of This World are wiser in their age than are the Children of Light?  How much does it hurt God that his followers are wise to do evil, but fools in doing good?

            God will not make us obey.  He will not make us love him.  He will not make us build his kingdom.  It turns out a vital part of the mission is for us to want it, and to figure out how best we can serve it.

            Furthermore, so many times when I pray for help, for knowledge, for wisdom, I get no answer whatsoever!  It turns out he has already given me everything I need to accomplish what he wants!  It’s almost like I’m sitting in a car, with the keys in it, gassed up and ready to go, and I’m praying for transportation!  God just looks at me, waiting for me to figure it out.

            “Make friends for yourselves with the mammon of unrighteousness…”  In other words, be wise with everything you have!  Seek every opportunity, watch out for every tool to use for God’s advantage!  How can your education advance the Kingdom of God?  How can your past advance the Kingdom of God?  How can what you have, or what you owe, advance the Kingdom of God?  What do you have?  What do you need?  What do you lack?

            God has done everything for us that we could not do for ourselves in order that we might be saved.  God will do nothing for us that we can do for ourselves in order that we might be grow into his likeness.

Lost Sheep, Mad Bombers, and Me

L O S T   S H E E P,   M A D   B O M B E R S,  A N D   M E

THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 15, 2013

THE OLD TESTAMENT

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

^11.         At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem:

            “A scorching wind comes from the heights in the wilderness, toward of the daughter of my people,

                        not for refining and not to cleanse, ¹²a wind too strong for that will come from me.

            “And I will declare their sentence.

^22.         “The folly of my people is that they do not know me.

            “They are foolish children, without understanding.

            “They are skillful at doing evil, but they do not know how to do good.

^23.         “I have seen the land, and look! it is formless and void;

and to the skies, and they have no light.

^24.         “I have seen the mountains, and look! they are quaking, and all the hills are writhing.

^25.         “I have seen, and look! there is not a person, and all the birds of the skies have fled.

^26.         “I have seen, and look! the fertile wilderness and all its cities are torn down

                        because of the Lord, because of his fierce wrath.

^27.         For thus says the Lord:

            “All the earth will be desolate, but I will not destroy it completely.

^28.         “For this reason, the land will mourn, and the heavens above will wail:

                        because I have declared my plan,

and I will not repent, and I will not turn back from it.

THE PSALTER

Psalm 14

^1.          To the Music Director:  a Psalm of David

            Fools say in their hearts that there is no God.

            They have ruined themselves.  They have done awful things.  None of them does good.

^2.          The Lord looks down from the heavens on human children

                        to see if there are any wise, any who seeks God.

^3.          They all have turned away.  They are altogether defiled.

            There is no one who does good, not a single one.

^4.          Do they not know, they who do evil, who eat my people like they eat bread,

                        that the Lord will call them to account?

^5.          There they were terrified with great terror, for God is with the righteous generation.

^6.          They would frustrate the plans of the needs, but the LORD is their defender!

^7.          I wish that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion!

            When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,

Jacob will dance for joy!  Israel will rejoice!

THE EPISTLE

I Timothy 1:12-17

            ¹²I thank our Lord Christ Jesus who empowered me, because he counted me faithful, placing my in ministry ¹³who at first was a blasphemer and persecutor and hurtful, but I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief; ¹⁴but the grace of our Lord, with the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus, superabounded.  ¹⁵Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first.  ¹⁶But rather I was shown mercy for this:  that in me first Christ Jesus might show the example of the patience he has for all who were about to believe on him into eternal life.  ¹⁷To the eternal, immortal, invisible King, the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever.  Amen.

THE GOSPEL

Luke 15:1-10

            ¹All the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear him.  ²The Pharisees and scribes would grumble, “This man receives sinners and eats with them!”  ³So he told them this parable:

            ⁴“Who among you who owns a hundred sheep and loses one will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you find it?  ⁵And when you find it, you’ll put it on your shoulders rejoicing ⁶and go home and invite your friends and family, ‘Come have a party with me!  I have found my lost sheep!’  ⁷I tell you there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who do not need to repent.

            ⁸“Or which woman of you who has ten drachmas and loses one will not light a lamp and sweep the house and look hard until she finds it?  ⁹And when she finds it, she calls her friends and family, “Come party with me!  I found the drachma I lost!’  ¹⁰Just like this, I tell you, there will be joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

L O S T   S H E E P,   M A D   B O M B E R S,  A N D   M E

A SERMON FOR THE 19^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 15, 2013

by William F. Thomas II

            It was a Monday, May 15, 1972.  We met at the altar of Jefferson First United Methodist for prayer.  Virgil Adams led us.  Virgil was my spiritual father.  We mentioned what we wanted to pray for.  Finally, somebody asked, “Shouldn’t we pray for Governor Wallace?”  Virgil looked mystified.  “What happened?”  We told him Governor Wallace had been shot.  Virgil burst into tears, and we prayed.

            After everyone had left, I stayed with Virgil at the altar.  He said, “I’m not crying for Wallace.  I’m crying for the man who shot him.”

            Forty-one years later, finally I’m getting into the ballpark where Virgil lived.  Ariel Castro killed himself a couple of weeks ago.  I was horrified at what he did.  What he stole from those girls, ten years of their lives, no one can restore to them, ever!  They will carry those scars in their souls for the rest of their lives.  There is no punishment adequate for what he did, and no punishment can make it right for those three young women.  But when I learned he had killed himself, sadness seized me, hard!  I was so sad at the waste of life, of Ariel Castro’s life.

           

            You see, God created Ariel Castro.  But God didn’t create him to do that.  God created him in love, with gifts and graces the world needed.  God loved Ariel Castro.  Jesus died for Ariel Castro.  And God has waited and hoped all these years that Ariel would hear him, and repent, and finally grow into the joy God prepared for Ariel Castro, the fullness of life Jesus died to buy for Ariel Castro! 

            Ariel Castro was a lost coin, a lost sheep, Jesus wanted back.  Arthur Bremer, who shot George Wallace, was a lost coin, a lost sheep, Jesus wanted back.  “The saying is true and worthy of all acceptance,” Paul said to Timothy, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and the he added, “and I was the first of sinners, their chief.”  Paul was a lost coin, a lost sheep.  And he learned to rejoice when a lost sheep is found, when a lost coin is back safe.

            Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of that Baptist Church in Birmingham.  God created the men who did that, and he created them in love, with gifts and graces to share with the world.  God didn’t create them to throw bombs at babies.  And God grieved with those dead babies.  And God grieved with their families and friends.  What happened to them was indescribable, inexplicable, unconscionable, evil.  

            But God loved the bombers too. 

            The parable of the Lost Sheep and the parable of the Lost Coin are two tellings of the same parable.  And there is a third telling right next to them, you know.  The Parable of the Lost Son.  We call is The Prodigal.  Notice the difference?  The man ran all over the countryside looking for his lost sheep.  The woman turned her house upside down looking for her lost coin. 

            The father sat on his rear end, did nothing to bring his lost son home.  Why?  Because sheep are dumb and coins are inanimate.  But you can’t MAKE people love you.  You can only imprison them.  Like Arial Castro did to those girls.  That’s evil.  God doesn’t do evil.  Either people stay with you or they don’t.

            God wanted Ariel to come home.  God wanted those bombers to come home.  God wanted Arthur Bremer to come home.  God wanted Adolf Hitler to come home.

            So why are the two Old Testament readings so very grim?

When my daughter Emily was a baby, when she was not yet walking, one day she tried to climb a magazine rack.  Now I didn’t care about that silly magazine rack.  Seeing her explore her world was a delight.  But I was afraid she was going to hurt herself.

So I pulled her down.

She climbed back up.

I pulled her down again.

She climbed back up again.

I started telling her, “Baby, don’t climb that.  You might hurt yourself.  Don’t climb that!  Stop climbing that!  STOP CLIMBING THAT!”

Finally, I put my head down and I begged, knowing where we were going, “Baby. Please don’t make me spank you.”  Because I would rather she experience a slap on her bare leg than some worse injury.

She cried a few minutes after I spanked her, then she was all right.  But she never tried to climb that magazine rack again.

I couldn’t sleep that night.  Not even when I was sure I had done the right thing could I sleep any night I knew I had caused my baby to cry.  To this day!

God has been saying to his children for millennia now, “Please don’t make me spank you.”

Sin isn’t bad in God’s eyes because it offends his dignity or his ego.  Sin is sin in God’s eyes because it hurts his beloved children, us!

Please don’t hear me lessening the suffering of Ariel Castro’s victims, or of the young women killed when that bomb went off in Birmingham 50 years ago; or of their families.  What their families went through I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy!  But God took care of those babies.  It was awful what happened to them, but they’re all right now.  If their grieving families could fight their way through the anger and bitter hatred that I would feel if somebody did that to my daughter, they are all right. 

But what of the souls of those sinners, those lost sheep?  What about them?

There is not a sinner nor a sin in history who was ever beyond the power of the Blood of Jesus to cleanse, nor beyond the scope of the love of Jesus to want.

Not even you.

Not even me.

I was a lost sheep.  I was a lost coin.

Sometimes I wander off yet.  Do you?

How can I accept my salvation if I rejoice in the condemnation of any?

How do I hold any beyond the reach of Jesus’ love without standing outside there myself?  How do I hold anyone down in the sewer without staying in the sewer myself?  How do I ascend to glory and bar the way to others?

Thanks be to God, his grace is available to EVERYONE!

That means I can come in too!  Thanks be to God!